Examining Intel's conception of the radio access network

Much attention is focused on Intel’s efforts to get its processors into the guts of the smartphone and mobile computing device, but Intel’s wireless ambitions don't just lie at the terminal end of the mobile network. Lately Intel has been pushing its silicon into the radio access network (RAN) itself.

Intel is betting that the processor architecture that revolutionized the PC industry can do the same for the telecom industry, allowing wireless equipment vendors and operators to tap into the pace of innovation and the economies of scale of the computing world. Intel has joined several traditional telecom vendors working with China Mobile to develop a cloud-RAN architecture that would remove the base station from the cell and distribute its functions within a carrier cloud, setting its X86 architecture for a new task: baseband processing.