Nokia & NVIDIA partnership to transform telecoms with AI

Nokia, in collaboration with NVIDIA, aims to herald a new era in AI-ready radio access network (RAN) solutions, thus further reinforcing Nokia's anyRAN strategy. The partnership's overarching goal is to incorporate AI as a cornerstone in transforming the telecommunication network business' future.

Nokia's In-Line accelerator technology, advanced NVIDIA Grace CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, and Cloud RAN software will form the heart of the collaboration. The AI-RAN pathway is set to be expedited with Nokia deploying NVIDIA GPUs for AI applications and vRAN acceleration.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, acknowledged this significant collaboration with NVIDIA as instrumental in their exploration of AI's transformative role in the industry. He stated, "This is an important collaboration with NVIDIA that will explore how artificial intelligence can play a transformative role in the future of our industry. It is a further example of our anyRAN approach that is helping to make Cloud RAN a commercial reality."

Nokia's In-Line accelerator technology will benefit from the NVIDIA Grace CPU, which is based on the advanced Arm Neoverse V2 CPU reference architecture. The CPU Superchip will ensure high performance, energy efficiency, and a broad bandwidth connection encompassing all data centre prerequisites. Consequently, Nokia's customers will have the luxury of diversity and choice when selecting CPUs for their Cloud RAN networks.

The Finnish technology giant has continuously strived for a flexible anyRAN approach that can cater to any purpose-built, hybrid, or Cloud RAN environment. The technology is intended to aid customers in their Cloud RAN services' quick initiation while eliminating complexity and guaranteeing openness and adaptability. This insight is reflected through Uitto's comment, "The strength of our industry collaborations means we can drive efficiency, innovation, openness, and scale by delivering competitive advantage to operators and enterprises."

The collaboration is set to use Cloud RAN software, In-Line Layer 1 (L1) accelerator technology from Nokia, and the NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchip to streamline Layer 2+ processing. Nokia has already proven its successful implementation of end-to-end 5G data calls (Layer 3 calls) in multi-vendor configurations with various partners.

Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President of Telecom at NVIDIA, commented on the significance of this collaboration. He stated, "Bringing the power of NVIDIA's advanced computing to Nokia's platform will deliver more performant and energy-efficient Cloud RAN solutions. Plus, as AI creates unprecedented transformational opportunities across industries, our collaboration with Nokia deepens AI-enabled innovation in radio access networks for improved operational efficiency in telecommunications."