Samsung outlined its progress in 5G virtualisation and compact solution sets during an event promoting its networks business in which it also unveiled new chipsets and discussed the direction of its research into 6G technology.

The South Korean vendor stated its virtualised core networks already carry more than 15 per cent of global mobile traffic. Most of this is in India, where Samsung said it provides a virtual core for one of the country’s leading operators.

Samsung and Reliance Jio demonstrated a virtual core together in 2019.

The vendor claimed it was the first to commercialise a non-standalone (NSA) 5G core, which is now processing a record 305Gb/s of data per server, and preparations are underway to launch a standalone version.

Samsung stated its equipment was used for the first fully virtual 5G RAN in the US, a system enabling dynamic spectrum sharing and Massive MIMO radios. Verizon said earlier this year it had deployed Samsung’s virtualised RAN (vRAN) product.

And the vendor highlighted it had demonstrated its ability to deliver Massive MIMO radios on generic hardware, bringing the performance of vRAN technology close to that of custom hardware solutions.

6G
Engineers at Samsung are already working on 6G, with the company noting it had demonstrated an end-to-end 140GHz wireless link using a fully digital beamforming solution in Terahertz spectrum.

It expects the next-generation technology to enable mixed reality applications in medicine, manufacturing, education and entertainment.

The company explained it is also working towards establishing open networking standards to deliver interoperability between hardware from different vendors and is an active member of the O-RAN Alliance.

Earlier this month, Samsung scored a major open RAN contract with Vodafone UK.

Chips
Samsung stated it had sold more than 4 million chips in the 5G radio hardware market to date, with development focused on enabling compact, high-performing solutions.

It unveiled its third generation RFIC, its second round of 5G modems and its next decision feedback equaliser-RFIC integrated chip.

Noting the importance of compact, cost-effective hardware, Samsung said it was the first vendor to bring together the radio, baseband and antenna in one box, adding the third generation of the product will be compatible with the major mid-band frequencies operators are deploying globally.