Samsung Electronics will showcase its latest products and services, including the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy Book3 Ultra at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain from February 27 to March 2, 2023. Visitors to the Samsung booth will get a first-hand look at the latest Samsung Galaxy innovations through immersive and interactive exhibits.

“At Samsung, we believe the future of Galaxy innovation lies in sustainability commitment and open collaboration with partners,” said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics. “At MWC this year, we’re excited to showcase how our latest lineups including the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy Book3 Ultra, exemplify Samsung’s approach to enabling new possibilities that enhance our daily lives.”

Epic Experiences With Powerful Products and Services
Samsung’s latest innovations are setting a new standard for premium mobile experiences that are further enhanced by its ecosystem of products and services. At MWC 2023, Samsung is showcasing how the Galaxy S23 series embodies its commitment to industry-leading innovation, with epic content-capturing and creating experiences and a more eco-conscious design.

The Galaxy S23 series’ advanced camera system gives users more freedom to explore their creativity, allowing them to capture truly cinematic photos and videos. Visitors to the booth can test out the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s all-new camera features, including Nightography capabilities in a low-light, 200MP Adaptive Pixel sensor1 for photos with incredible details, as well as advanced portrait photos with an AI Stereo Depth Map. The Galaxy S23 series offers the fastest and most powerful performance ever in Galaxy to gamers and creators.2 Visitors can play racing games at the booth and experience the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s powerful gaming performance.

At the core of Samsung Galaxy Ultra innovation is the connected experience with the expanded Galaxy ecosystem. Visitors can explore seamless phone to PC connected features with the all-new Galaxy Book3 Ultra, which offers fast and frictionless movement across multiple devices, screens and operating systems. MWC attendees can also discover the best of Samsung’s services with demos for sleep coaching with Samsung Health on the Galaxy Watch5, Samsung Wallet and connecting and controlling home devices with SmartThings. They can also explore privacy features and the endless customization options available on Galaxy devices with One UI 5.1.

All the Galaxy S23 series’ new standard-setting innovations are housed within a striking design that advances Samsung’s sustainability commitment. The Galaxy S23 series incorporates recycled materials in more device components than in any other previous Galaxy smartphone3 and is built to last with durability and repairability, making it dependable for years to come. At the booth, attendees can learn about Samsung’s new commitment to its concept of “Everyday Sustainability” and check out an immersive art installation composed of multiple generations of upcycled S series devices.

Samsung Integrations Across MWC in Collaboration With Partners
Samsung believes in open collaboration and working with industry leading partners to create the best experiences for its customers. Thanks to this approach, visitors will be able to find Samsung at various partner booths throughout this year’s MWC. Attendees can visit the Android Avenue (between Hall2 and Hall3) to learn about the eco-conscious materials used in the Galaxy S23 series, customize the sound notifications on the latest Galaxy smartphones and even snap some selfies right from the Galaxy Watch5 on exhibit. Samsung will also be part of Qualcomm’s booth (Hall3, 3E10) where visitors can check out the leading performance of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, featuring the brand-new Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy. The Samsung Display Booth (Hall 2, 2K40) will demonstrate the durability of Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) used on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold4. Visitors can also experience first-hand the clear and vivid Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display used on the Galaxy Book3 series.

To celebrate the launch of its latest products, Samsung will be on full display with advertisements for the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Book3 series and Galaxy family of devices in marquee locations at Fira Barcelona Gran Via including the mega billboard, main entrance and exterior flag poles and hanging banners.

The Samsung MX booth (Hall3, 3I10) at MWC is located in Hall 3 of the Fira Barcelona Gran Via.

Samsung Electronics announced the company is bringing next-level capabilities to its virtualized RAN (vRAN) to improve performance and increase power savings. The advanced vRAN software will boast a range of new “smart” features — optimized to address the needs of forward-looking operators. These include advanced capabilities that will help pave the path towards the next phase of network virtualization, including features that increase bandwidth support of Massive MIMO radios, analyze hourly traffic patterns to optimize network operating conditions, and automate networks with “sleep mode” to save energy consumption.

A leader in the vRAN market, Samsung has been contributing to the earliest massive commercial adoption of 5G virtualized networks across the world. The company has been the only major vendor that has conducted large-scale commercial vRAN deployments with Tier One operators on multiple continents — in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“While Samsung’s 5G vRAN has successfully proven its performance by delivering results on par with traditional hardware-based equipment in commercial networks, we are moving fast into the next phase of vRAN software development — Samsung’s vRAN 3.0,” said Ji-Yun Seol, Vice President, Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “The software-centric nature of the solution allows us to add these enhanced capabilities — performance optimization and energy efficiency — much faster than traditional RAN hardware. Samsung’s newest features will add tremendous value to operators rapidly shifting to virtualized networks.”

Samsung’s next-level vRAN capabilities include the following:

Performance Optimization

200MHz 3 Cell Support
With a software upgrade, Samsung’s vRAN will be equipped with the ability to provide 3 Cell configuration with 200MHz of bandwidth support using its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios. This is more than triple the radio bandwidth support when compared to its previous generation software, capable of supporting an operator’s entire mid-band 5G spectrum holdings.

Modem Algorithm Optimization
Samsung is incorporating a modem algorithm optimization approach to its development roadmap. Unlike a hardware-centric approach, modem algorithm optimization enables operators to receive software tailored to their needs, with only the required features and configurations, allowing for an optimized and efficient use of COTS servers.

Power Savings
CPU Core Sleep Mode
Available on Samsung’s vRAN software, this feature reduces power consumption by automatically putting the CPU in “sleep mode” — or turning off unused CPU Cores — during periods of low data traffic. When capacity demand increases again, CPU Cores exit sleep mode.

Adaptive Core Allocation
This feature of Samsung’s vRAN software assigns a number of CPU Cores at cell setup proportional to the number of active cells. Unassigned or unused CPU Cores are set to idle mode to reduce power consumption and are activated when capacity demand increases.

Energy Saving Feature Orchestrator (ESFO)
ESFO is an orchestration tool that manages multiple energy saving features in one platform, optimizing efficiency with no service interruption. ESFO automatically analyzes hourly traffic patterns and optimizes the operating conditions of each Energy Saving feature, per sector and time zone. The tool constantly updates the multi-level Energy Saving operations of multiple power saving features — such as cell on/off and Tx path on/off — to reflect traffic pattern changes and prior results.

With these enhanced capabilities, Samsung’s vRAN can support smarter management and operation of wide-scale commercial virtualized networks, as more operators seek to meet the next-generation network demands of their customers. Samsung plans to launch its new vRAN capabilities to global operators, beginning its rollout in North America in the first half of 2023.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Samsung Electronics today announced enhancements to its Samsung Cloud Orchestrator (SCO) — a solution that automates the lifecycle management of large-scale virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRAN). SCO streamlines the onboarding, deployment and operation processes, making it easier for operators to manage hundreds to thousands of cell sites from a unified platform.

The SCO now supports automation of vRAN deployments on both private and public clouds, enabling network services to be provisioned across multiple cloud environments, and this multi-cloud capability offers a highly flexible scaling option for operators, tailored to various deployment scenarios.

Samsung delivered SCO for virtualized RAN to Tier One operators in Asia, Europe and North America, leveraging the solution to bring greater efficiencies to their network deployment and operation.

“Automation adds incredible value for operators who are rapidly shifting to software-centric networks. With our enhanced Samsung Cloud Orchestrator, operators have a necessary platform to deploy and manage their vRAN with maximum efficiency and greater flexibility,” said June Moon, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This is part of Samsung’s goal to leverage our wide-scale commercial vRAN deployment experience to develop and introduce intuitive tools that take vRAN to the next level.”

For virtualized and Open RAN network operators, SCO enables them to simplify manually intensive tasks from the very start of network creation. It is an integrated automation platform that supports end-to-end process coordination through a centralized portal, where users can view and control the status of their network in one unified platform.

The key process-improving capabilities delivered by SCO include the following:

Onboarding: Operators can leverage this solution to prepare packages to be installed at each site and automatically perform deployment tasks on a scheduled basis. This allows operators to easily implement their own CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) environment. It verifies package version and file formats and automatically checks for missing components in the package.
Deployment: Operators can distribute numerous vRAN software packages and containers needed to launch large groups of cell sites with one click from a centralized location — reducing the overall deployment time. It also helps simplify the configuration process of each cell site through centralized management of tasks.
Operation: SCO can provide automatic vRAN software upgrades, healing and scaling, to ensure the resilience of each network, enabling operators to maintain optimal network conditions by performing these tasks remotely on a massive scale.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Samsung Electronics and Vodafone today announced their plans to accelerate 5G Open RAN expansion across Europe, beginning new open network initiatives in Germany and Spain, while enhancing Vodafone’s 5G network in the U.K.

This builds upon the two companies’ initial network collaboration, including Vodafone UK’s successful launch of the first 5G Open RAN site in Bath, U.K. in January 2022, using Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) solution. Vodafone and Samsung are proving stable performance and capacity in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, exceeding targeted performance level and power savings in its strategic Open RAN sites (also known as its ‘Golden Cluster’), located in Exmouth and Torquay, England.

“As we grow and scale our network, we are excited to jointly drive collaborative Open RAN innovation and continue our groundbreaking work together with Samsung,” said Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture for Vodafone. “We look forward to continue bringing fundamental improvements to our wide-scale next-generation network, to further accelerate our open network approach for 5G expansion across Europe.”

New Europe 5G Initiatives
Building on their collaborative advancements, the two companies continue to grow their Open RAN footprint in Europe. New developments and projects include:

In the U.K.: The companies implemented Samsung’s O-RAN compliant Massive MIMO radios in Vodafone UK’s commercial network, efficiently expanding 5G coverage in the U.K. With this, Samsung’s 64T64R Massive MIMO radios are now successfully integrated with 5G vRAN, carrying commercial data traffic. Recently, the companies also completed a data call using Samsung’s vRAN and NEC’s Massive MIMO radio, demonstrating multi-vendor interoperability for Vodafone’s commercial network. This illustrates how Open RAN technology can enable multi-vendor integration of vRAN, not only with single-band radios but also with more complex Massive MIMO radios.
In Germany: Vodafone will carry out comprehensive pilot projects for Open RAN using Samsung’s 2G/4G vRAN and O-RAN compliant radio solutions. In these commercial pilots announced in October 2022, Vodafone will use Samsung’s mature solutions — proven in large-scale commercial networks — to demonstrate outstanding performance, stability and reliability.
In Spain: Samsung joined Vodafone’s testbed in Ciudad Real, which was created to benchmark mature RAN providers and compare performance across both traditional and Open RAN. Samsung will deploy its Massive MIMO radios and 4G/5G vRAN in CREATE (Ciudad Real España Advanced Testing Environment) to evaluate and verify their performance in Spain’s urban environment.

“Samsung’s virtualized Open RAN solutions are successfully running in Vodafone’s commercial network in the U.K., delivering performance on par with traditional mobile radio networks and providing Vodafone with an agile network on which to deploy new services and features,” said Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe. “Vodafone has been a pioneer in the Open RAN space and they continue to break new grounds. We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Vodafone by extending our capabilities across Europe, and taking vRAN innovation to the next level.”

Continuing to claim deployment milestones, the two companies remain as strong partners in leading 5G Open vRAN innovation. Vodafone and Samsung are collaborating with other Open RAN leaders, to drive acceleration of Open RAN with wider diversity and multi-vendor, open architecture.