Written by Vodafone
Vodafone’s engineers at its R&D centre in Málaga, Spain, are exploring the potential for new silicon photonic chips to become the hardware of choice to drive the customer-focussed mobile networks of the future. This applies particularly to higher capacity open radio access networks.
The news that Vodafone is exploring this new technology comes as the company today expanded its purpose-built campus in Málaga to house the more than 430 highly skilled engineers made up of over 30 nationalities already working there, along with the further 170 expected to join by 2025. In addition to advancements in silicon chip architecture, Málaga is home to Vodafone’s pioneering work in edge computing, IoT and network APIs, among other disruptive technologies, all of which support the digital transformation of Europe’s public sector and businesses of all sizes.
Far Faster Chips
Silicon photonic chips promise to be far faster, more efficient, and reliable than today’s electronic equivalent found in most electronic devices, including smartphones and telecommunications infrastructure. They use light instead of electricity to compute mathematical operations and the computation time is measured by how long it takes the light to cross the microchip.
The photonic chips would sit at the heart of Vodafone’s mobile base stations, providing an ultra-low latency, highly programmable and greener network. Their integration would support the massive advances in computation seen in new technologies like generative AI, cyber security (including quantum computing), and autonomous vehicles, to name but a few.
