Mavenir accelerates AI for enterprises with intelligent video analytics on 5G

Mavenir has launched its Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA) offering, in a move which further demonstrates a broadening of its technological capability to complement its range of communication services based on Open RAN technology.

The network software provider’s new offering applies artificial intelligence (AI) to video stream analysis, and is designed to enable enterprises and communication service providers (CSPs) to gain instant insights and actionable intelligence.

The principal reason cited by Mavenir for the launch is the trend for industries to be increasingly engaging cameras at a rapid pace to capture images and videos to understand, prevent and react to anomalies. It calculates that with several petabytes of data generated by cameras every day, business users are seeking AI-based services to support the human staff responsible for detecting and responding to insights.

Built on an open, cloud-native framework, Mavenir’s IVA can be deployed on any cloud infrastructure and integrated into a multi-supplier environment that implements actions on the derived insights. As part of the set, the IVA bundles pre-trained deep learning models and pre-configured workflows with AI-infused analytics to reduce the service’s time to value. Mavenir assures that this can be reduced from several months to a few weeks.

With the Mavenir IVA streamlined interface, users can configure and manage deployments, lowering the costs associated with skilled and scarce data scientists.

The distributed architecture of IVA employs real-time analytics to capture data at edge nodes, and then uploads data content of value to a centralised computing function in the cloud. The smart edge nodes ensure optimised usage of the network’s bandwidth while the transfer of data to the centralised nodes provides capabilities for cumulative analytics, configuration of alerts and management of the edge nodes. 

Key intended use cases for Mavenir’s IVA include: manufacturing – defect inspection; smart cities – traffic flow planning; entertainment – crowd management for large events; airports – traveller experiences enhancement; retail – shopper experience enhancement; and workplace safety – standards and regulations compliance.

The service also uses NVIDIA graphics processing units to accelerate the processing of data at several stages of the workflow, delivering insights with what are said to be millisecond latencies.

MAVedge AI will further expand Mavenir’s portfolio of AI services with the NVIDIA Metropolis AI-on-5G converged platform, which includes an NVIDIA A30X converged accelerator and NVIDIA ConnectX SmartNIC with 5T-for-5G technology.

The upcoming offering further speeds time to market by providing packages that include Mavenir and NVIDIA software, NVIDIA-Certified Systems from Dell and 5G radios.

“IVA enables enterprises and CSPs [cloud service providers] to tap into AI-enabled solutions that empower businesses,” said Srinivas Chitiveli, assistant vice-president of AI apps and intelligent video analytics at Mavenir.

“Mavenir [can deliver IVA] as part of a comprehensive 5G solution, resulting in optimised deployments and lowered costs towards realising value.”