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Advanced Mobile Communications 3GPP is also addressing the fixed network and security
Technologies – 3GPP™ aspects of 5G, including issues raised in the ETSI Summit on
5G Network Architecture held in April 2017. These include
the potential difficulties of handling very large numbers of
terminals in the 5G IoT world, with correspondingly large
ETSI and 3GPP numbers of base stations, particularly in urban areas.
ETSI is one of the founding partners
of the Third Generation Partnership All in all, Release 15 already comprises around 100 top-
Project (3GPP), in which we come level items, currently split fairly evenly between studies and
together with six other regional normative features.
standardisation organisations worldwide, plus
market associations and several hundred individual 3GPP will also take account of the continuing evolution of LTE
companies, to develop specifications for advanced technology, particularly in the radio access networks area,
mobile communications technologies.
with yet more frequency bands and combinations thereof
being added for ever more versatile radio data rates.
Based on the evolution of GSM™, which was defined
by ETSI, 3GPP has developed the Universal Mobile 3GPP will complete the normative work for the extension of
Telecommunications System (UMTS™), LTE and LTE- mission-critical services from simple voice to data and video
Advanced/LTE-Advanced Pro technologies.
in Release 15, making LTE technology attractive to an ever
widening user community.
3GPP is supported by ETSI’s Mobile Competence
Centre (MCC).
The timescale for the delivery of 5G is very ambitious.
Finalisation of the first phase of 5G specifications in Release
Further information at: www.3gpp.org
15 is expected by September 2018, to accommodate early
commercial deployment. The second phase in Release 16 is
due to be completed by March 2020, for submission to the
In 2017, 3GPP will focus on Release 15. As well as building International Telecommunication Union as a candidate
on the functionality of previous Releases, Release 15 will IMT-2020 technology.
benefit from the results of the first concentrated 5G studies.
Unlike previous 3GPP technologies, where the radio access However, 3GPP is expected to approve specifications for
specifications have, to some extent, dominated, 5G is likely ‘non-stand-alone’ NR in March 2018. 5G standardisation will
to be much wider in its scope and will not necessarily be continue well beyond these dates, with constant evolution of
restricted to further developments of ‘conventional’ cellular the system, as for 4G and 3G before it.
telecommunications. It is also likely to be much broader
than traditional cellular applications, extending to the IoT The international railway community has long used enhanced
– which will itself include a vast array of Vehicle-to-Vehicle GSM technology to meet its operational needs. Now that
(V2V) and Vehicle-to-Anything (V2X) applications. These will many of those enhancements are being provided to the
require an enormous improvement in latency and bandwidth mission-critical user community, the railway authorities are
and, whilst a vehicle may need to provide a relatively small considering LTE for their next generation of communications.
amount of data, it can expect to receive very large amounts
from other vehicles (or other objects) and will have to
process these in real time, reacting within milliseconds. It
is also likely that Release 15 will see the first moves to use
3GPP technology for non-terrestrial communication, in
particular inshore waters, and for satellite communication.

The feasibility reports for new 5G radio technology, to be
known as ‘NR’, having largely been completed in the Release
14 timeframe, 3GPP is now laying the foundations for the
normative standardisation work.

The higher frequencies associated with NR pose both
different propagation problems as well as opportunities, and
demand a different approach to architecture and protocols,
given the shorter path lengths and higher base station
density.

NR normative work in Release 15 will be divided into so Mobile Standards Group
called ‘non-stand-alone’ radio, where the NR terminals Our Mobile Standards Group (TC MSG) provides the
piggy-back onto the LTE radio access network and rely on the regulatory standards needed to support the deployment of
LTE core network services and, later, ‘stand alone’ NR, which GSM, UMTS and LTE networks in Europe.
needs no LTE network as support and communicates directly
via the NR access network to the 5G core network. In 2017, we will continue to focus on the updating of
Harmonised Standards from the R&TTE Directive to the RED.

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