Introduction
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is the organisation that creates and maintains the technical standards for global mobile communication technologies, including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, LTE, and future 5G technologies.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a United Nations organisation that regulates the global use of mobile telecommunciation. The ITU sets the guidelines and requirements by which 3GPP must work.
3GPP
Members of 3GPP come from regional standardisation bodies, and from the radio communication industry, for example telecommunication service providers and manufacturers.
Acronyms
| 3GPP | 3rd Generation Partnership Project |
| TSG | Technical Specifiation Group |
| WG | Working Group |
| PCG | Project Coordination Group |
Organisation
3GPP is divided into three Technical Specification Groups (TSG) , each one covering a broad aspect of mobile radio networks. The TSGs in turn consists of several Working Groups (WG) . The working groups all have their own technical focus within the area of their TSG.
The working groups produce specifications in the form of documents called Technical Specifications (TS) or Technical Reports (TR) . All these documents are publicly available through the 3GPP website.
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PCG
-
TSG RAN (Radio Access Network): UTRA/E-UTRA network in FDD and TDD mode
- RAN WG1
- RAN WG2
- RAN WG3
- RAN WG4
- RAN WG5
- RAN WG6
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TSG SA (Service & Systems Aspects): overall architecture and service capabilities
- SA WG1
- SA WG2
- SA WG3
- SA WG4
- SA WG5
- SA WG6
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TSG CT (Core Network & Terminals): UE (terminal) capabilities and core network
- CT WG1
- CT WG3
- CT WG4
- CT WG6
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TSG RAN (Radio Access Network): UTRA/E-UTRA network in FDD and TDD mode
An overview of the different TSGs and working groups can be found here.
3GPP Releases
3GPP publishes new standards as so-called releases . A release consists of many individual specifications that work consistenly together.
The milestones of 3GPP are these releases, and not full “next generation” technologies like UMTS, LTE, or 5G. These latter terms are just fuzzy labels that are not clearly defined, in contrast to the 3GPP releases which are very clearly specified and documented.
For example, Release 8 marks the introduction of LTE specifications, and all the subsequent releases thru Release 14 introduce improvements and extensions to the existing LTE specifications. A technology like LTE is thus an evolving standard rather than a fixed set of technologies.
An overview of all past 3GPP releases can be found here.
Timeline of 3GPP Releases
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Release 99
Specifications & Technologies- UMTS (3G)
-
Release 4
Specifications & Technologies -
Release 5
Specifications & Technologies- HSDPA (3.5G)
-
Release 6
Specifications & Technologies- HSUPA
-
Release 7
Specifications & Technologies- HSPA+
-
Release 8
Specifications & Technologies- Freeze date: December 2008
- Initial LTE Standard
- OFDMA waveform
- FDD/TDD operation
- IP-based EPC
- Freeze date: December 2008
-
Release 9
Specifications & Technologies- Freeze date: March 2010
- LTE Broadcast (eMBMS)
- LTE Positioning (LCS)
- Enhanced voice fallback (CSFB)
- VoLTE
- Freeze date: March 2010
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Release 10
Specifications & Technologies- Freeze date: September 2011
- LTE Advanced
- Carrier Aggregation (CA)
- HetNets (eICIC-IC2)
- Advanced MIMO
- Freeze date: September 2011
-
Release 11
Specifications & Technologies- Freeze date: March 2013
- Coordinate multipoint (CoMP)
- HetNets enhancements (feICIC-IC2)
- Freeze date: March 2013
-
Release 12
Specifications & Technologies- Freeze date: March 2015
- Dual Connect
- FDD-TDD CA
- 256 QAM
- D2D
- Enhanced local-area access
- Enhanced multi-antenna/multi-point transmission
- Active-array antenna systems
- Three-dimensional beamforming
- Massive MIMO
- Enhanced coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission/reception
- Enhanced machine-type communication
- Introduction of device-to-device communication
- Public safety (with and without network assistance)
- Commercial applications (with network assistance)
- Freeze date: March 2015
-
Release 13
https://www.3gpp.org/release-13- Freeze date: June 2016
- Extensions of LTE
- 32x CA
- FD-MIMO
- LTE Unlicensed (LAA)
- Offloading to unlicensed spectrum
- MTC (machine type communication)
- LTE IoT (eMTC, NB-IoT)
- Freeze date: June 2016
-
Release 14
https://www.3gpp.org/release-14- Freeze date: June 2017
- Enhanced LAA (eLAA)
- Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X)
- Digital TV BroadCast (enTV)
- Low-latency LTE
- Freeze date: June 2017
-
Release 15
https://www.3gpp.org/release-15- Freeze date: June 2019
- First release containing “5G” (NR) specifications
- The 5G System – Phase 1
- Massive MTC and Internet of Things (IoT)
- Vehicle-to-Everything Communications (V2x) Phase 2
- Mission Critical (MC) interworking with legacy systems
- WLAN and unlicensed spectrum use
- Slicing – logical end-2-end networks
- API Exposure – 3rd party access to 5G services
- Service Based Architecture (SBA)
- Further LTE improvements
- Mobile Communication System for Railways (FRMCS)
- Drone/ULL communications
- Freeze date: June 2019
-
Release 16
https://www.3gpp.org/release-16- Freeze date: Open
- The 5G System – Phase 2
- V2x Phase 3: Platooning, extended sensors, automated driving, remote driving
- Industrial IoT
- Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) enhancements
- NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum
- 5G Efficiency: Interference Mitigation, SON, eMIMO, Location and positioning, Power Consumption, eDual Connectivity, Device capabilities exchange, Mobility enhancements
- Enhancements for Common API Framework for 3GPP Northbound APIs (eCAPIF)
- FRMCS Phase 2
- Freeze date: Open
-
Release 17
https://www.3gpp.org/release-17- Freeze date: Open
- NR Light
- Small data transfer optimization
- Sidelink enhancements
- NR above 52.6 GHz (inlc 60GHz unlicensed)
- Multi SIM operation
- NR multicast broadcast
- Coverage enhancements
- NB-IoT and eMTC enhancements
- Industrial IoT & URLLC enhancements
- MIMO enhancements
- NR for Non Terrestrial Networks
- Integrated Access and Backhaul enhancements
- Generic enhancements to NR-U
- Power saving enhancements
- RAN data collection enhancements
- Positioning enhancements
- Freeze date: Open
Three-Stage Methodology
3GPP creates new standards according to the following methodology:
- Stage 1: define the service requirements from the user’s point of view
- Stage 2: define an architecture to support the service requirements
- Stage 3: define an implementation of the architecture by specifying protocols in detail
Methodology defined in ITU-T Recommendation I.130
ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is an agency of the United Nations (UN) responsible for global issues of telecommunication technologies.
ITU coordinates the global use of the radio spectrum, and defines requirements for next-generation mobile communication technologies.
ITU Sectors
ITU is divided into the following three sectors:
ITU Requirements
ITU-R defines technical requirements for next-generation mobile communication technologies. These requirements may include minimum data rates, coverage, reliability, etc.
These requirements define what is generally known as 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.
The standards created by 3GPP aim at meeting these requirements. It is only when a 3GPP release meets the next ITU requirement, that it “merits” the label 3G, 4G, etc. For example, the ITU requirement for 4G (IMT-Advanced) was met by 3GPP Release 10, which is generally known as LTE-Advanced. Thus, strictly speaking, the earlier LTE versions of Release 8 and 9 were not yet 4G, and it is LTE-Advanced that was the first real 4G technology.
The following are the past few ITU requirements
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IMT-2000
- Defines “3G”
- Year of release: 2000
-
IMT-Advanced
- Defines “4G”
- Year of release: 2012
- Met by LTE Advanced (3GPP Release 10)
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IMT-2020
- Defines “5G”
- In progress
- Estimated release date: 2020
Note that IMT stands for International Mobile Telecommunication and is the ITU name for the cellular mobile communication (the business of 3GPP).
World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC)
The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) is organised by ITU-R, and held typically every 3 to 4 years in Geneva.
The WRC regulates the use of the radio-frequency spectrum in the different world regions. It allocates frequency bands to different applications, including mobile cellular communication (the business of 3GPP), which is called International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) by ITU.
The following is a list of some of the past and future conferences:
- WRC-93 (Nov. 1993)
- WRC-95 (23 Oct.–17 Nov. 1995)
- WRC-97 (27 Oct.–21 Nov. 1997)
- WRC-2000 (8 May–2 Jun. 2000)
- WRC-03 (9 Jun.–4 Jul. 2003)
- WRC-07 (22 Oct.–16 Nov. 2007)
- WRC-12 (23 Jan.–17 Feb. 2012)
- WRC-15 (2 Nov.–27 Nov. 2015)
- WRC-19 (28 Oct.–22 Nov. 2019)
- WRC-23 (2023)
WRC-15 and WRC-19
Of particular interest is WRC-15 and the coming WRC-19 with regard to millimetre-wave (mmWave) technologies for IMT (i.e. 5G).
Resolutions of WRC-15:
- Frequency bands made available for IMT:
- 470–694/698 MHz (600 MHz) – primarily for some countries in Americas and APAC
- 694–790 MHz (700 MHz, Region 1) – for Region 1 (EMEA) as a result out of WRC-12, effectuated at WRC-15
- 1427–1518 MHz (L-band) - global band
- 3300–3400 MHz – for some countries in all three ITU Regions
- 3400–3600 MHz (C-band) – additional country support making this a global band
- 3600–3700 MHz (C-band) – for some countries globally
- 4800–4990 MHz – for some few countries in APAC and one in Americas
- Agenda item for WRC-19 to study the bands 24.25–27.5 GHz, 31.8–33.4 GHz, 37–43.5 GHz, 45.5–50.2 GHz, 50.4–52.6 GHz, 66-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz for IMT-2020 (5G)
Expectations for WRC-19:
- Higher-frequency spectrum allocations for IMT ( >24 GHz)
Conclusion
This summary for 3GPP and ITU will always be updated, as standards continue to evolve.
Credits: This is a modification of the original article 3GPP and ITU
Unfortunately, this website is not update for years, but information is interesting for the telecom community. But fortunately, the author allow us to continue the work: Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0
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