Japan 5G Network Tests Arm Chips, Claims Power Draw Down By 72%

The company also said that many telecommunication workloads need to reside on edge infrastructure with power and real estate constraints, and the Graviton2 offers efficiency with low cost, low power, and a low hardware footprint.

NTT Docomo’s EVP and CTO of R&D Innovation Division Naoki Tani said in a statement the company was delighted to achieve a significant reduction of power consumption for its 5G core network.

"We will continue the collaboration on the proof-of-concept with NEC and AWS for future delivery of environmentally friendly and disaster-resilient 5G network service to our customers,” he said.

AWS's VP and GM for its Telecom Industry Business Unit Adolfo Hernandez said in a statement: “AWS is committed to building a sustainable business for our customers and the planet, and is thrilled to see the power savings Graviton2 delivers in telecommunications.

"We look forward to continuing to work with NTT DOCOMO and NEC to further expand the use of cloud and AWS technologies to advance sustainability and resiliency goals."

The Japanese infrastructure giant was tapped to fill the Huawei-shaped hole in the UK telecoms supplier market in 2020, with trials of OpenRAN tech in partnership with NEC under the NeutrORAN project taking place in Wales. Earlier this month, it completed trials of its 5G massive MIMO tech on France's experimental 5G standalone network.

According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, at least 19 operators in 15 countries/territories are now understood to have launched public 5G SA networks. A further four have deployed 5G SA technology but not yet launched services, or have only soft-launched them. Most current deployments are NSA, or non-standalone, piggybacking on 4G infrastructure.

Several Chinese operators have launched standalone 5G, according to GSA, including China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. In October 2021, SoftBank Corp. became the first Japanese operator to launch an SA network. ®