At Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) revealed their collaborations with Intel on 5G Standalone (SA) Core Network and Roadside Edge AI (Artificial Intelligence) for C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) that power the new era of network transformation with the compelling capabilities of 5G, C-V2X and AI working together.

ASTRI’s 5G Standalone (SA) Core Network at 200Gbps on Intel Architecture

5G networks aim to provide diversified services. In 3GPP Release 15 standards, the 5G new Standalone (SA) core network enables a high degree of flexibility to meet application and service requirements. In fact, the Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services have very high traffic capacity and data rate requirements (as much as 1000x comparing to 4G). The new 5G SA core network requires significantly more capacity, throughput performance and scalability to meet the challenging requirements for 5G.

ASTRI and Intel have collaborated on the research, development and optimization of 5G SA Core Network, especially on the User Plane Function (UPF) throughput, to meet 5G requirements. The collaboration results in, on a single sever, over 200Gbps throughput can be processed by ASTRI’s 5G UPF without packet loss. The key capabilities and elements to deliver breakthrough performance in the 5G Core Network include:

• The UPF of ASTRI’s 5G SA Core Network can achieve high per-core performance
• Dynamic Device Personalization (DDP) technology on Intel® Ethernet Network Adapters is utilized to achieve fine-grade load balancing to allow throughput scale up linearly with additional CPU cores
• ASTRI 5G SA Core Network can scale down to a single hardware platform for small scale deployments, or scale out and distributed in cloud architecture

ASTRI and Intel are continuing the R&D collaboration to work closely on ASTRI’S 5G SA core network, such as supporting the N9 interface for mobile edge and additional Service-Based Network Functions, to enable a variety of network topologies to transform mobile core network to cater different 5G applications and scenarios.

Edge Intelligence and C-V2X Transforming Smart Mobility and Network Infrastructure

ASTRI and Intel collaborated to enable edge AI and visual-sensing capabilities for evolving next-generation smart roadside Infrastructure. The initial focus will be on enabling the real-time object recognition by ASTRI’s C-V2X Edge Software solution to detect imminent danger on roads and issue real-time alerts (like pedestrian crossing) to the respective drivers via C-V2X communications between vehicles and roadside infrastructure.

In addition to the low latency C-V2X communications, the C-V2X Edge Software demands high performance computing, AI and visual data processing to achieve end-to-end low latency. The Smart Roadside Computing Unit is powered by Intel® Xeon® D-2100 processors, delivering Intel’s ground-breaking data center processor architecture in a form factor optimized for cloud edge computing solutions. It brings the architectural innovations of the Intel Xeon Scalable platform to a system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor for low-power, high-density, small footprint solutions, integrating essential network, security, and acceleration capabilities. The AI and visual data processing in the Smart Roadside Computing Unit is accelerated by Intel® Myriad X Visual Processing Unit (VPU) and OpenVINO toolkit.

Accelerating Innovation and Transformation

5G SA Core Network is an important element for mobile core network transformation to support next wave of 5G services. ASTRI 5G SA core network, as pure software-based implementation, verified the suitability on high-volume platforms with Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, to deliver outstanding performance and flexibility to allow quick time-to-market roll outs. Intelligent sensing and low latency communications using a C-V2X solution at the roadside (network edge) play an important role in shaping next generation roadside Infrastructure and smart mobility services.

Dr. Justin Chuang, VP of Next Generation Network at ASTRI: “ASTRI and Intel have mutual interests in network transformation since our collaboration on 4G EPC/C-RAN and virtualization.  Thanks to Intel, and as we are moving into the 5G era, the combinations of wireless, network, computing and intelligence to enable 5G and C-V2X applications shall be increasingly important. It’s exciting to see the collaboration with Intel getting deeper, wider and more impactful in 5G + C-V2X + AI to drive forward success in innovation and transformation.”

Caroline Chan, Vice President and General Manager of the Network Business Incubator Division at Intel: “Network transformation, AI and edge computing are converging to create some of the most amazing innovations we’ve seen in decades. Together with research leaders like ASTRI, Intel technology will fuel the next-generation of AI-powered applications and 5G-ready communications networks.”

Looking forward, it is expected to see more sensors on the roadside infrastructure to collect massive data and be transferred via 5G. Smart mobility applications will process the data at roadside edge and provide fast response to C-V2X enabled road users.

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2019, ASTRI will demonstrate our collaborations with Intel on 5G SA Core and Edge AI for roadside infrastructure in ASTRI booth [N1.D130].

Mobile World Congress Shanghai is Asia’s Leading Event for Next-generation Technology – 5G, IoT, AI, Big Data and Beyond. MWC Shanghai has over 60,000 attendees and over 550 participating companies. Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2019 will take place from Jun 26-28 in Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Shanghai, China.