Milestone moves virtualised RAN from lab validation to carrier-grade reality, as operators weigh cloud-native architectures, cost reduction and AI readiness
Samsung has completed what it describes as the industry’s first commercial call using a fully virtualised radio access network, marking an important step in the transition of vRAN from controlled trials into live operator environments. The call was carried on an Tier 1 US operator’s commercial network, using Samsung’s cloud-native vRAN software running on Intel’s latest Xeon 6 system-on-chip processors.
While the operator has not been named, Samsung’s long-standing vRAN relationships in the US suggest a familiar Tier 1 partner that may begin with the letter V, underlining the strategic significance of the milestone.
For Samsung, the achievement builds directly on a 2024 proof point, when it successfully completed an end-to-end vRAN call in a laboratory environment. Moving from the lab to a live commercial network is a materially different challenge, requiring carrier-grade performance, reliability and operational stability as far as the partners are concerned. In that context, the company is positioning the demonstration as evidence that single-server, software-driven RAN architectures are approaching practical deployment readiness.
The commercial call was conducted on a single commercial off-the-shelf server from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, running Samsung’s vRAN on a Wind River cloud platform and powered by Intel’s Xeon 6700P-B processor series. The processors offer up to 72 cores and include Intel vRAN Boost and Advanced Matrix Extensions, designed to accelerate both RAN and AI workloads.
Multiple network functions
Samsung argues that this combination enables operators to consolidate multiple network functions, including radio access, mobile core, transport and security, onto fewer, more powerful servers. Traditionally, these functions have been distributed across dedicated hardware platforms, adding cost, complexity and energy consumption at cell sites and aggregation points.
“This breakthrough represents a major leap forward in network virtualisation and efficiency,” said Samsung’s Networks Business EVP and head of R&D June Moon. “It confirms the real-world readiness of this latest technology under live network conditions, demonstrating that single-server vRAN deployments can meet the stringent performance and reliability standards required by leading carriers.”
The significance lies less in the headline “first” and more in what it signals for network economics and architecture decisions. Moreover, Samsung’s announcement was littered with 6G references so it is straightforward to work out where the company thinks this is all going.
Virtualised RAN decouples baseband software from proprietary hardware, allowing operators to run network functions on general-purpose compute platforms. In theory, this enables greater flexibility, faster feature rollouts and reduced vendor lock-in. In practice, performance concerns and power efficiency have remained barriers, particularly at scale.
Barriers may be falling
Samsung is using the live network call to argue that those barriers are beginning to fall. By running commercial traffic on a single server, the vendor claims operators can simplify site configurations, reduce power consumption and lower both capital and operational expenditure. The ability to support AI workloads alongside RAN processing is also being positioned as increasingly important, as operators explore AI-driven optimisation and automation within the network.
Intel, for its part, sees the result as validation of its strategy to embed RAN and AI acceleration directly into mainstream server processors. “With Intel Xeon 6 SoC, featuring higher core counts and built-in acceleration for AI and vRAN, operators get the compute foundation for AI-native, future-ready networks,” said Intel VP and GM for network & edge Cristina Rodriguez.
Samsung’s broader vRAN strategy is already visible in commercial deployments. In the US, it has worked extensively with Verizon on virtualised and cloud-based RAN architectures, while in Europe it is engaged in several Open RAN and vRAN projects with operators including Vodafone and Orange.
