Post doc – Evaluation of hardware acceleration for disaggregated Radio Access Networks F/M

about the role

Your role is to carry out a Post doc work “to evaluate emerging heterogenous compute and hardware acceleration solutions through a case study focusing on disaggregated Radio Access Networks” attached to the WP1 of the European IPCEI-ME/CT (OpenRAN Lab & Testing Platform).

• Global context and problematic of the subject: In the context of 5G Radio Access Infrastructure and critical Edge services, we are seeing a continuum of processing options CPUs, GPUs, FPGA, eFPGA, ASIC, eASIC, with System on Chip options combining CPUs and specialized silicon on same die. Some critical functions may also be implemented combining different hardware, e.g. eFPGAs and structured ASICs. The only consensus in industry is that RANs will very likely require hardware acceleration, but several questions remain open: which functions on which type of hardware, how to compose the hardware, how to best leverage and share deployed hardware. Energy efficiency, sustainability while keeping performance targets shall influence choice.
• Scientific objective – results and obstacles to overcome. The objective of this post doc is to propose methodologies and tools to assess performance, power consumption and costs of deployments of inline and lookaside acceleration for RAN physical layer functions and critical ML/AI algorithms employed by RAN control applications and a concrete evaluation with a selected set of hardware.

To address the objective, a detailed state of the art analysis will first be performed to identify candidate technologies (compute, interconnexion and memory) for exploration. The analysis will cover both emerging industrial solutions and current research directions in industry and academy. Furthermore, standardization initiatives, in particular the O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer that aims at defining a hardware-agnostic acceleration interface will serve as a guide to ensure portability and interoperability of the studied options.

This study will allow giving recommendations and guidelines on choices of infrastructure hardware acceleration solutions to deploy Cloud RAN and Edge services to decision makers. The main scientific obstacles are linked to the incomplete knowledge of the energy consumption, pooling gains, and exact performances (specifically of base band processing functions) that can be obtained through the different hardware options

about you

Skills, experience and personal qualities required by the position

• Expertise in computer architecture
• Experience in Design space exploration
• Some experience in simulation tools for digital design will be appreciated
• Knowledge of signal processing and telecommunications is an advantage

Required training : PhD in a related field

additional information

The virtualization of network functions and interoperable interfaces for communication systems like cloud-native RAN and core networks will require high-performance processors, reusable hardware accelerators and specialized hardware.

This study is part of the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies to aid Orange in achieving its goal of bringing solutions for the creation and deployment of secure and sustainable digital infrastructures. Specifically, Orange is involved in the objective to deliver a mature and field validated Open RAN solution (software and hardware). To meet this objective, it is required to select, integrate, and validate end to end disaggregated Open RAN architectures relying on methodologies and tools.

department

Orange Innovation brings together the research and innovation activities and expertise of the Group’s entities and countries. We work every day to ensure that Orange is recognized as an innovative operator by its customers and we create value for the Group and the Brand in each of our projects. With 740 researchers, thousands of marketers, developers, designers and data analysts, it is the expertise of our 6,000 employees that fuels this ambition every day.

Orange Innovation anticipates technological breakthroughs and supports the Group’s countries and entities in making the best technological choices to meet the needs of our consumer and business customers.

At Orange Innovation, you will be part of a research team on the cutting-edge of expertise in cloud and network hosting infrastructures and automated deployment of future network services (virtualization, 5G+, continuous integration). You will benefit from a research ecosystem in alongside anticipation engineers with opportunities to make experiments and implement the considered concepts with concrete use-cases.

contract

Post Doc

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