Accelerated AI-RAN Developments for Las Vegas, Courtesy of NVIDIA and Vapor IO

In September, we covered a Las Vegas-centered story here on Smart City Sentinel — Verizon Business entered a promising agreement with Vay Technology, a rent-by-the-minute, remotely driven (or “teledriven”) electric vehicle (EV) services company. Therein, Verizon agreed to lend its 5G connectivity capabilities to Vay, enhancing its convenient-pickups-at-the-push-of-a-button offering. (i.e. a unique, connectivity-driven take — pun intended — on the modern car-share app) Read that full story here.

Today, we’ve got another Sin City innovation for you, readers: NVIDIA recently announced its collaboration with Vapor IO.

The objective?

Deploy the “world’s first” private 5G artificial intelligence radio access network (or “AI-RAN”) in Las Vegas that’s powered by the NVIDIA AI Aerial.

We spoke about AI-RAN fairly recently over on our Internet Telephony news site; NVIDIA synced up with the likes of T-Mobile, Ericsson and Nokia to a.) grow the AI-RAN Alliance all four of these companies are founding members of (with investments already banked for a new AI-RAN Innovation Center based in Bellevue, Washington), and b.) dramatically improve customers’ real-world network experiences and reduce overall power consumption by leveraging billions of data points to devise algorithms that determine optimal network adjustments for maximum performance where people need it most.

At the time of this article’s publication, big orgs’ levels of confidence in AI-RAN appear to be on the rise, in terms of what’s been dubbed “the tremendous potential to transform the future of mobile networks.” Click here for that particular scoop.

So then, what’s the NVIDIA AI Aerial suite of accelerated computing platforms all about?

Well at its core, this delivers both AI and RAN services on a common accelerated infrastructure. NVIDIA firmly believes this technology will, quote, “drive the next generation of wireless networks, moving from single-purpose to multi-purpose infrastructures that are AI-capable and more efficient, while supporting industry standards for 5G, private 5G, Open RAN and 6G in the future.” Additionally, it contains hardened RAN software libraries for telcos, cloud service providers (CSPs), and enterprises building commercial 5G networks.

Combine this with Vapor IO’s Zero Gap AI (launched with Supermicro), and you get to even more of the sweet stuff this collab has in store.

According to the companies, this first deployment of private 5G AI-RAN in Las Vegas “uses the NVIDIA Aerial CUDA-accelerated virtual RAN software stack and NVIDIA MGX with GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip accelerated computing reference design (along with other Supermicro technologies).” The collaboration with Vapor IO is key, as its aforementioned Zero Gap AI edge infrastructure makes it possible to bring AI-driven compute power right to the network’s edge.

With this solution, Vegas will reportedly be capable of handling some of the most demanding applications, enabling a wide range of new revenue streams.

“AI applications infused with private 5G networks can supercharge smart city initiatives, enabling cities to gather, analyze and act upon vast amounts of data in real time to enhance the city’s experience,” explained Soma Velayutham, Vice President of Telecom at NVIDIA. “AI-RAN technology makes this possible, and this first deployment of private 5G AI-RAN solution using NVIDIA AI Aerial and Vapor IO showcases the extensibility of AI-RAN to various use cases.”

And from Vegas itself, the city’s chief innovation officer Michael Sherwood stated how he and his team “are thrilled to be working with NVIDIA, Vapor IO and other ecosystem partners to bring this AI-RAN solution to Las Vegas. This deployment marks a significant milestone in our journey towards becoming a smarter, more connected city. The AI-RAN solution will undoubtedly propel our smart city initiatives to new heights, enabling us to deliver improved services and a better quality of life for our residents and visitors.”