New Artesyn MaxCore HA Platform Can Cut Cost of NFV C-RAN/vRAN Deployments by 75 Percent

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - May 12, 2016 - Artesyn Embedded Technologies launched the MaxCore™ HA platform, a high availability version of its microserver platform for NFV/SDN and carrier cloud networks, including new network components such as the cloud/virtualized radio access network (C-RAN/vRAN). It is designed for next generation constrained-space installations, such as the LTE rollout in China, while still retrofitting into existing LTE deployments and meeting telecom central office high availability requirements.

MaxCore™ HA platform

The versatile MaxCore architecture enables operators to create either massively dense single-function appliances or to deploy multiple independent virtual network functions (VNFs), such as voice or video transcoding, on a single platform. Carriers can reduce the capital and operating expense of deploying cloud infrastructure, while allowing it to scale as needed. For example, a single MaxCore HA system can support significantly more cells per RAN, in a compressed footprint and with a fraction of the power and cooling costs compared with a traditional rack mount server (RMS) approach using today's L1 technology.

Todd Wynia, vice president of communications platforms marketing, Artesyn Embedded Technologies, said: "We estimate that carriers can build their C-RAN/vRAN infrastructure with the MaxCore HA platform at one quarter the cost per cell compared to RMS-based solutions but with higher density and lower power consumption. The high availability features built into this new platform, such as hot swap and clocking, enables carriers to bring virtualization to the network edge and support mobile edge computing on the path to 5G. What's more, Artesyn's accelerator products can work with existing server infrastructure and customer-designed or third-party PCI Express cards so carriers are not locked in and have the most flexibility in deployment."

Capable of accommodating up to 384 Intel® Xeon® D processor cores, the MaxCore HA platform is one of the highest density high availability platforms available today.

"The promise of 5G requires powerful network edge devices with local caching capabilities," said Dan Rodriguez, general manager, Communications Infrastructure Division, Intel.  "Artesyn's MaxCore platform will help deliver on that promise with NFV and SDN technologies that are flexible and configurable on Intel architecture and achieve lower operating costs."  

The Artesyn MaxCore HA platform is housed in a 5U high, 19-inch rack-mountable enclosure with redundant switch cards featuring optional 100G Ethernet interfaces and 12 hot swap PCI Express fabric slots. Customers can flexibly configure it with Artesyn microserver or SharpStreamer™ acceleration cards or third party off-the-shelf PCI Express cards, connected through a high speed backplane without cables for high-performance and simple configuration. Front access I/O interfaces and front-to-rear cooling are preferred for many telecom central office environments. It features system management software and Artesyn's Silver Lining™ NFV enabling software, which leverages open source projects such as OpenFlow, OpenStack, Linux, OVS and DPDK.

Artesyn has recently published two solution briefs on lowering the CapEx and OpEx associated with building C-RAN and vRAN infrastructure.

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About Artesyn Embedded Technologies

Artesyn Embedded Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of highly reliable power conversion and embedded computing solutions for a wide range of industries including communications, computing, medical, military, aerospace and industrial. For more than 40 years, customers have trusted Artesyn to help them accelerate time-to-market and reduce risk with cost-effective advanced network computing and power conversion solutions. Artesyn has over 20,000 employees worldwide across ten engineering centers of excellence, four world-class manufacturing facilities, and global sales and support offices.