Consolidated Edge Server for Next-Gen Open RAN

OpenRAN is anticipated as the next revolution for Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure, and considered as an optimal solution to enhance capacity and coverage, while reducing latency caused by escalating growth of data on the 5G network. OpenRAN solutions offer flexibility and scalability through the disaggregation of hardware and software, and the utilization of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware.

Powered by 5x Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, Lanner HTCA-E400 is a consolidated hyper-converged edge server specifically designed for OpenRAN infrastructure. With support of Intel Tofino P4 and FPGA/GPU acceleration, the scalable HTCA-E400 edge compute platform features programmable, intelligent switching capability that can offload open architecture CPU and is cost-effective in the long term through supporting protocol-independent and multi-Tbps networking performance without being compromised by hardware bottleneck.

 

Designed for
5G Distributed Edge

HTCA-E400 features short-depth 450mm chassis and front I/O design, making it an ideal fronthaul gateway for Open RAN Infrastructure. The front-access I/O and tool-free chassis design greatly reduces the efforts for system serviceability at remote edge sites. HTCA-E400 meets NEBS-3 compliance, a necessary specification to function as a carrier-grade hardware in service provider and telecom network environments.

 

The 3rd Gen
Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

HTCA-E400 can support up to 5 compute sleds, each equipped with a 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor (codename Ice Lake). With a total of 200 cores count, PCIe-Gen 4.0 higher bandwidth and 1.2x memory capacity, HTCA-E400 will deliver unprecedent performance for virtualization workloads through increased processor cores, higher memory bandwidth and faster input/output, offering up to 1.94x more secure networking connections and achieve significantly faster speeds to support Open RAN and other Edge Cloud applications.

 

P4 Programmable Switch
for Packet Processing

HTCA-E400 features 2 protocol-independent switch sleds, both featuring the Intel Tofino P4 programmable ethernet switch ASICs to offer dual channel, 3.2TB switching capability. Through this programmable, intelligent forwarding plane, the switch sled can offload open architecture CPU, accelerating high-priority applications and packet processing for latency-sensitive workloads, without being compromised by hardware bottleneck.

The Switch Sled also supports carrier-grade IEEE 1588 Precision Timing Protocol (PTP v2), which enables the appliances to achieve a high degree of time synchronization for mission-critical applications deployed in Open RAN, MEC and 5G Edge Clouds.

 

PCIE, Storage and
NIC Card Expansion

Each compute sled on HTCA-E400 can support up to 5 PCIe*16 sockets for a variety of acceleration cards, including GPU and FPGA cards, to offload the repetitive but high-volume workloads from CPU and improve total application performance. For system connectivity and storage, the HTCA-E400 features a total of 10 2.5” SATA storage bays for low-latency communication and 5 NIC module slots compatible with OCP NIC 3.0 cards available in the market.

 

Built-in Hardware Security

Designed with security features inside, the HTCA-E400 features integrated 100Gbps Intel QAT for data crypto acceleration, secure IPMI remote chassis management and Intel SGX, a hardware-based memory encryption for isolating specific application code and data in memory. HTCA-E400 can also support root of trust Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM 2.0), providing the integrated cryptographic keys and secure boot to protect the hardware from unauthorized accesses.

High Availability Design

To ensure the 24/7 non-stop network operation in the 5G edge infrastructure, HTCA-E400 supports high availability design with hot-swappable, 1+1 3000 watt power redundancy. The HTCA-E400 also features the all-new Chassis Manager, which allows users to remotely monitor status of each sled in single page.