NEC claims energy gains using Intel processor

NEC developed a mechanism for dynamically controlling hardware resources of an Intel Xeon processor, adding advanced power management capabilities to 4G and 5G networks to reduce power consumption and costs.

In a user plane function (UPF) performance test, NEC stated it reduced power consumption by more than 30 per cent in a near-commercial environment using a standalone (SA) 5G converged core network.

NEC used Intel’s Xeon scalable processor telemetry for the UPF’s load determination logic, customised the logic to fit real commercial traffic and implemented it in a data plane development kit built into its UPF.

The company noted UPF applications handling traffic often appear to consume 100 per cent of CPU resources.

NEC said it optimised power consumption by dynamically adjusting the Xeon processor usage with real-time traffic.

“Reducing energy consumption drives tangible business benefits for operators and is key to supporting energy efficient networks in the telecoms industry,” Patrick Lopez, global VP of 5G product, noted.

NEC aims to increase power saving of the entire 5G network by applying the technology to user plane processing on the RAN and the control plane on the core.

The findings are part of a post-5G R&D project commissioned by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO).