Intel's Infrastructure Power Manager software delivers additional energy savings of over 30%.
Latest Updates: Intel Announces Breakthroughs in Energy Efficiency for 5G Core Networks
In response to the growing demand from network operators to enhance energy efficiency, Intel Corporation has unveiled two significant advancements aimed at reducing power consumption and overall ownership costs in 5G core networks:
Sierra Forest Processors: Intel showcased its next-generation processors, codenamed Sierra Forest, boasting up to 288 energy-efficient cores. These processors are designed to significantly improve energy efficiency in 5G core networks.
Intel® Infrastructure Power Manager (IPM) Software: Intel has officially launched its IPM software tailored for 5G core network infrastructure management, offering enhanced power efficiency capabilities.
According to Alex Quach, Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Wireline and Core Network Division, the continuous evolution of 5G core networks necessitates further improvements in existing infrastructure's energy efficiency. With most 5G core networks currently deployed on Intel Xeon processors, Intel holds a distinct advantage in addressing these efficiency challenges. The introduction of new energy-efficient cores in their roadmap, along with the commercial release of the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software, enables service providers to significantly reduce overall ownership costs while achieving unparalleled performance and energy-saving benefits across the network.
Significance: Energy-saving measures remain a significant challenge for network operators as they expand their wireless 5G core networks.
How It Works: Introduced at last year's Intel on Technology Innovation event, the expansion of Intel's Xeon processor roadmap to include energy-efficient cores is a pivotal step. These cores are optimized for energy savings and reducing overall ownership costs, with the upcoming Sierra Forest processors boasting up to 288 cores, delivering a 2.7x improvement in single-rack performance in the realm of 5G core network workloads.
These new processors enable network operators to increase single-rack performance, virtual CPU (vCPU) count, and performance per watt without significant changes to application software. Intel is closely collaborating with operators and 5G core network software vendors to deploy these new processors and the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software.
CPU Innovation Highlights:
British Telecom (BT): Continues its leadership in climate action, with a deep collaboration with Intel aimed at enhancing efficiency. The latest Intel Xeon processors (Sierra Forest) and Intel Infrastructure Power Manager will accelerate BT's sustainable journey.
Dell Technologies: Continuously provides advanced servers to the telecom industry through collaboration with Intel and optimization based on global operator requirements.
Ericsson: Maintains a long-standing deep collaboration with Intel, driving innovation in the 5G core network domain. Both companies will demonstrate the performance of the next-generation Intel Xeon processors on Ericsson's dual-mode 5G core network and Ericsson cloud infrastructure.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE): Collaborating with Intel to maximize the computational efficiency and performance of 5G infrastructure using the next-generation Xeon processors codenamed Sierra Forest.
KDDI: Evaluating the next-generation Intel Xeon processors codenamed Sierra Forest for their energy efficiency and core count, crucial factors in building their 5G networks.
SK Telecom: Assessing the next-generation Intel Xeon processors codenamed Sierra Forest and Intel Infrastructure Power Manager for their sustainability goals, achieving breakthrough improvements in performance per watt for their next-gen 5G core network deployments.
Telstra: Collaborating with Intel to evaluate the next-generation Intel Xeon processors (Sierra Forest) for their 5G core network, aiming for enhanced energy efficiency, higher performance, and sustainability.
About Intel Infrastructure Power Manager (IPM): Released at MWC 2023, this software enables operators to leverage the telemetry capabilities of Intel Xeon processors to reduce CPU power consumption without compromising critical performance metrics like throughput, latency, and packet loss. The software can be installed on existing and future Intel Xeon-based network infrastructure.
Achieving Net Zero Emissions: With energy consumption accounting for 20% to 40% of network operating costs, optimizing end-to-end energy consumption for 5G networks is crucial for telecom service providers' overall sustainability. By integrating the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software into 5G core network software products, operators can accelerate their sustainability goals and effectively offset carbon emissions.
Casa Systems: Showcasing, in collaboration with Dell Technologies and Telenor, the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software running on fourth-generation Intel Xeon processors at their MWC booth, demonstrating up to 50% energy savings. Casa's 5G core network integrated with the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software is now commercially available.
NEC: Leveraging the Intel Infrastructure Power Manager software to ensure high energy efficiency for User Plane Function (UPF), offsetting the increase in energy consumption for carbon neutrality. This achievement contributes to significant improvements in mobile network traffic processing performance while reducing energy consumption and costs.
Nokia continues its deep collaboration with Intel, striving to develop cutting-edge solutions to build energy-efficient, sustainable core network infrastructure. Nokia has optimized its 5G core network by integrating Intel's infrastructure power manager software. Testing 5G user plane and control plane functions on HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen 11 servers with Intel Xeon processors, Nokia proved a 40% reduction in CPU power consumption and zero packet loss. Nokia's IPM testing results exceed the generational efficiency improvements brought by Intel Xeon processors. Nokia will roll out the first commercial 5G core network stack based on this feature in 2024.
Orange is collaborating with ecosystem partners like Intel and Nokia to significantly reduce the runtime power consumption of its network function infrastructure. By leveraging Intel's infrastructure power manager in the network and collaborating on projects like the #Sylva initiative, Orange is accelerating efficiency improvements and lowering operational costs.
Samsung, in partnership with SK Telecom, has conducted lab testing of Intel's infrastructure power manager software for the user plane. Current trials indicate a 27% reduction in CPU power consumption without affecting throughput, latency, or packet loss. SK Telecom anticipates energy savings exceeding $10 million and accelerating its net-zero emissions goals by offsetting thousands of tons of carbon emissions. Samsung announces that its 5G core network software utilizing Intel's new processors will be commercially available in the second half of 2024.
ZTE continues its collaboration with Intel to assist operators in reducing the power costs and overall ownership costs of network infrastructure. By adopting Intel's infrastructure power manager integrated with ZTE's 5G common core network solution, operators will achieve required performance and efficiency.
For end-users' next steps: they can visit Intel's booth at MWC (Hall 3, Booth 3E31), watch demonstrations of the next-generation Intel Xeon processors codenamed Sierra Forest, and collaborate with 5G core network software providers to learn more about Intel's infrastructure power manager.
Notes:
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Intel is committed to continuing the development of more sustainable products, process technologies, and supply chains, prioritizing greenhouse gas emissions reduction and reducing our global environmental impact. Environmental attributes of product series or specific SKUs will be detailed where applicable. For more information, please see the 2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report.
