Vodafone and AMD Collaborate to Develop Next-Gen Energy-Efficient AI-Enabled Base Stations

Vodafone and AMD are collaborating to develop advanced silicon chips for 5G base stations, aiming to boost capacity, enable AI-driven services, and enhance energy efficiency. This initiative, spearheaded at Vodafone’s Innovation Centre in Malaga, Spain, uses AMD’s Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC (Radio Frequency System-on-Chip) technology to create adaptable, high-performance radio systems. Vodafone said this initiative will help reduce radio antennae size, lower energy consumption and decrease the number of base stations, all while continuing to give customers excellent coverage.

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Enhanced Capacity and AI-Driven Services

The new chips integrate radio receivers and Arm processors, offering flexibility and remote upgrades—key advantages over existing devices such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), which are very efficient, but inflexible. The single-chip radio platform is optimised to reduce radio antennae size, can be remotely modified after installation, and is custom-designed to support specific sets of radio configurations.

In its announcement, Vodafone said that the AMD-enhanced base stations will allow its engineers to “quickly support new 5G services, introduce the latest AI algorithms and industry standards, as well as dial-up capacity during busy periods without having to rip out and replace existing hardware.”

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Open RAN Compatibility

“The modular design of these AMD adaptive SoCs also makes them ideal for Open Radio Access Networks (RAN), which are constructed using a mix and match of hardware and software from different vendors,” Vodafone added.