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Reaffirming its position as the leading network silicon provider, Intel has unveiled Intel Network Platform along with new additions to its product portfolio for 5G and edge at the MWC 2021.

Intel Network Platform is a technology foundation that can reduce development complexity, accelerate time to market and help to ensure customers and partners can take advantage of the features in Intel hardware, from core to access to edge.

It includes system-level reference architectures, drivers and software building blocks that enable rapid development and delivery of Intel-powered network solutions offering an easier, faster path to develop and optimise network software.

"Network transformation is critical to unleash the possibilities of 5G and maximize the rise of the edge to create new and better business outcomes for our customers across the globe," Intel Corporate Vice President, Network Platforms Group, Dan Rodriguez, said in a statement.

"As the leading network silicon provider, we have been driving this shift to virtualising the core to access to the edge and implementing edge computing capabilities with our decade of experience, to power our society's digital revolution," Rodriguez added.

The company confirmed its leadership in the virtual radio access network (vRAN), noting nearly all commercial vRAN deployments are running on Intel technology.

With Intel's expansive portfolio delivering feature-rich silicon and optimised software solutions, the company can tap into an estimated $65 billion edge silicon opportunity by 2025, the company said.

Intel technology is already deployed in over 35,000 end customer edge implementations, it added.

The Intel Smart Edge consists of two software offerings for the multi-access edge computing layer that will now have a unified architecture and codebase to help customers onboard and manage edge applications and network functions, whether they want to buy a commercial solution or build their solution.

It is a commercial software focused on enterprise on-premise use cases, such as private networks and universal Customer Premise equipment.

The Intel Agilex FPGA family is expanding, with a new FPGA with integrated cryptography acceleration that can support MACSec in 5G applications.

This adds another layer of security to vRAN at the fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul levels, the company said.