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Past and Future – an Overview of 2016

In line with our new Long-
Term Strategy for 2016-2021,
5G and the Internet of Things
(IoT), and work in support of
their development, dominated
our activities in 2016 – but
not exclusively. We continued
to work in areas of traditional
expertise, and we also looked
to the future.

Nurturing New Technologies The Building Blocks for 5G
For example, we cultivated our links with the research 5G networks will consist of large elements of virtualisation,
community and academia, and we organised numerous a topic addressed by our ISG on Network Functions
workshops to disseminate research results and identify Virtualisation (NFV), which in 2016 produced its second
standardisation opportunities. release of ETSI NFV specifications. 5G will need very high
performance and high availability – and much more spectrum
Our Industry Specification Groups (ISGs) continued to to achieve those objectives. Our work on millimetre wave
prove an effective mechanism for bringing together key transmission will provide a valuable knowledge base for 5G
stakeholders, including non-members of ETSI, to kick-start systems. Our ISG on Multi-access Edge Computing is looking
new technologies. In 2016, we set up a new ISG on Mobile into placing computational functionality as close as possible
and Broadcast Convergence to define the requirements for to the end-user to achieve the very low latency which 5G will
media delivery over converged networks. require.

5G Energy Efficiency
Building the Internet of Things Energy efficiency will acquire far greater significance
In September, oneM2M Release 2 was published, providing with 5G than it did with previous mobile communication
a common core interworking platform technology for the technologies. In 2016 we embarked on an investigation into
IoT. Within ETSI, we also worked on smart cities, Body Area possible new metrics for energy efficiency within 5G systems.
Networks, wireless industrial automation, eHealth and At the same time, 3GPP was involved in a study of the energy
Intelligent Transport Systems. efficiency of mobile networks.

On the radio side, we are producing standards for Low Maximising the Use of Spectrum
Throughput Networks. We further enhanced the Digital Spectrum resources are struggling to meet the growing
Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT™) Ultra Low demands of the Internet and mobile communications and
Energy specification, which is primarily driven by a low power this problem will become even more pronounced in the
requirement for battery-operated devices, and we began to light of 5G. As well as ensuring compatibility between the
consider the future of DECT, particularly with regard to ultra- different uses in adjacent spectrum, we are looking for ways
reliable and low latency communications. to improve spectral efficiency by using modern methodology
and advanced techniques for sharing spectrum. In 2016 we
completed our work on Licensed Shared Access, and began
Towards 5G Mobile Communications looking at the possible extension of software reconfiguration
While significant work is still being undertaken to evolve the technology to other network entities.
4G system, planning for the development of 5G is well under
way, both within the Third Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP™) and through the work of our own committees. Security
Security standards are crucial to a modern connected
In 2016 3GPP agreed a detailed work plan for Release 15, world. We produce standards for the security of individual
the first release of 5G specifications, and began work on the technologies, as well as for specific security topics – Lawful
standardisation of the Next Generation architecture. Good Interception, Quantum Key Distribution and security
progress was made with various studies into possible new algorithms, for example. We are addressing the security of
radio technologies capable of meeting the evolving and critical infrastructures, the privacy of users and other aspects
disparate demands of the IoT. of cyber security, and we are looking at the new challenges
of security in virtualisation. In 2016 we completed our first
specification on quantum-safe cryptography. We began work

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