Discussing 5G RAN with Cristina Rodriguez of Intel

5G wireless is one of the most complex technologies ever designed, deployed and delivered to customers.  The internet behind the wireless internet that brings 5G RAN or radio access network is under the direction of a seriously innovative company - Intel.  Running that leading-edge division is Cristina Rodriquez - Vice President in the Intel Data Center Group and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division.  In a rapid fast-paced interview, I interviewed her to bring the outside wireless access to the Intel-inside technology that will make 5G a reality.  She discussed an amazing array of technologies from top of tower to cloud integration as well as many other insights as to what's coming.  Take a look and see what's coming on 5G from Intel.

I am excited to talk with Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President in the Data Center Group and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division.

Evan - Hello Cristina, and thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Thought leadership has given me the opportunity to learn about the breadth and depth of Intel's global efforts.

Cristina - I am responsible for the wireless access division RAN radio access network. RAN is that piece of telecom infrastructure, handsets, end user devices and many others, that connects to the rest of the network through a radio connection.

Evan - What is the big idea in going to virtual network elements, software running radios and more?

Christina - This is a fun question to answer. The new type of RAN deployments we have to look at 5G and the edge and what the edge means. When you look at the evolution of RAN in comparison much more diverse sets of deployments, we are going to see deployments distributed from the top to the bottom of the tower along with more centralized deployments and still others with fully-integrated deployments at the top of the tower. Macro and micro with different kinds of capacities with licensed and unlicensed network from 6GHz to many other use cases with ultra-reliability, low latency there are so many possibilities there. The network that exists today will have to support current use but at the same time there is a market need to bring innovation such as cloud and increasing the value of the RAN. We are starting to see the service providers embrace this type of transformation in the network for use in network virtualization. We have the ability to bring the common cloud to the core from the edge including the far edge with new software and new revenues models.

Evan - We have seen the network such as SDN and software. Why did it take so long to get here? Why now?

Cristina - It is a combination of things - the tech has to be there and the product steps from the Intel portfolio, applying server technologies in the RAN, brings the possibilities to do these things. We announced new scalable processors and a new B5900 platform to make this happen. Traditionally, RAN is the Layer 1 in the wireless stack which is very compute intensive which is a great plan to expand. With some consolidation we can load Layer 1 into the processor into a common platform. There is a third thing that 5G makes possible for mission critical work load with low latency. The amount of data that travels through the network requires us to bring the compute power closer to the user which we can do with Intel solutions.

Evan - You go to market with many different partners. What is the go-to-market look like on the RAN side?

Cristina - In my view the amount of innovation in the RAN is tremendous with multiple types of deployments, architectures, timelines, workloads and applications that the services providers can benefit from. We have a deep relationship cross the industry and we work close with telco and service providers which now extends to RAN networks.

Evan - I am interested in understanding your efforts in R&D in finding cures?

Cristina - It is hard to not to have a conversation without addressing protecting the health of people. Technology has never played a more important role using a digital network to combat this epidemic and we are mobilizing efforts to help. We are pledging $50 million to accelerating access at the point of care and access to online learning plus $10 million to local communities to help them and we are proud and lending expertise too.

Evan - Keep up the great work and stay safe.

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