News

Introduction

The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence into new industries with new stakeholders, coupled with an evolving threat landscape and huge growth in AI, presents tough challenges for security. The TC SAI creates high quality technical standards to combat these challenges.

Artificial Intelligence impacts our lives every day, from local AI systems on mobile phones suggesting the next word in our sentences to large manufacturers using AI to improve industrial processes. AI has the potential to revolutionize our interactions with technology, improve our quality of life and enrich security – but without high quality technical standards and good practices, AI has the potential to create new attacks and worsen existing security measures.

The ETSI Technical Committee on Securing Artificial Intelligence (TC SAI) has a key role to play in improving the security of AI through production of high-quality technical standards; the TC SAI will create standards to preserve and improve the security of new AI technologies.

Role & Activities

TC SAI addresses 4 main aspects of AI security standardisation:

1. Securing AI from attack e.g. where AI is a component in the system that needs defending.
2. Mitigating against AI e.g. where AI is the 'problem' (or used to improve and enhance other more conventional attack vectors).
3. Using AI to enhance security measures against attack from other things e.g. AI is part of the ‘solution’ (or used to improve and enhance more conventional countermeasures).
4. Societal security and safety aspects of the use and application of AI.

The ETSI TC SAI develops the technical knowledge that acts as a baseline in ensuring that artificial intelligence is secure. Stakeholders impacted by the activity of ETSI’s group include end users, manufacturers, operators and governments.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the TC SAI committee page.

Future work

Although the phrase was coined in the 1950s, practical AI systems have only really been implemented in recent years, driven by:

These new techniques and capabilities, together with the availability of data and compute resources, mean that AI systems will only become more prevalent. However, this results in a series of challenges both old and new. See below for a list of potential future topics for the TC SAI.

TC SAI will consider how its own activities can contribute to the development of future EU Harmonised Standards under the EU AI Act.

Find out more

For more on ETSI's general security work, check out the cyber security page on our website.

If you are interested in joining ETSI, including TC SAI, please refer to membership information and contacts on the SAI committee page.

Introduction

ETSI test specifications are as a rule developed according to the well-proven methodology defined in ISO/IEC 9646. The methodology recommends that the test specifications include Test Purposes, Test Descriptions and Test Cases. 

Test Purposes (TP) provide an easy-to-read self-contained description of each test, concentrating on what is to be tested rather than how the actual test may be achieved. They are derived from the relevant base standards and are developed, extensively discussed and approved in a standardization group.

Test Descriptions (TD) provide a detailed specification of the way the test need to be performed. They are developed by testing experts and approved in a standardization group.

Test Cases are written in a programing language that is dedicated for testing. Test cases are developed by testing experts, proven to work well and then formally approved by a standardization group.

Our Role & Activities

The test specifications are written using the languages that are standardized by ETSI TC MTS for that purpose.

TDL may be used both to specify the Test purposes and Test Descriptions. For all information on TDL please look at a dedicated web site tdl.etsi.org/. On the site you will find a TDL webinar, the TDL tutorials and will discover the TDL Open Source project (TOP). 

TTCN-3 is used to write Test Cases that form ETSI Test Suites. For all information on TTCN-3 please look at ttcn-3.etsi.org. The dedicated TTCN-3 site will give you up-to-date information on the language itself as well as how and where it is being used. As of July 2024, TTCN-3 is undergoing a major revision, with a view to further enhance the ability to maintain and develop the language in light of current and future needs.

Artificial Intelligence widely builds on Machine Learning (ML) and is now making its way in ICT products and services. With a view to continuing best in class methods and languages for testing, TC MTS is now looking into principles and challenges for testing ML-based systems, quality attributes and test items as well as suitable test methods and their integration into the life cycle of typical ML-based applications for industry.

Standards

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

UTRA (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access) as a 3rd generation system, with the enhancements provided by High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), for both downlink and uplink, will remain highly competitive for several years. Nevertheless, the industry that has developed the 3GPP technologies, launched a project in Dec. 2004 called Long Term Evolution (LTE) to study requirements for a new air interface called Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA).

Note: The terms LTE and E-UTRA are synonymous, however the radio specifications talk rather about E-UTRA.

The results of this study i.e. the E-UTRA/LTE requirements were documented in Rel-7 3GPP TR 25.913:

Following the definition of the E-UTRA/LTE requirements, the same Rel-7 study produced a 3GPP TR 25.912 "Feasibility study for evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)" to describe how the radio part of the system could be designed. Corresponding normative E-UTRA/LTE work followed then from Sep. 2006 until March 2009 in Rel-8 specifications.

In parallel to the radio architecture evolution a Study on 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE) was carried out with the objective to develop a framework for an evolution or migration of the 3GPP system to a higher-data-rate, lower-latency, packet-optimized system that supports multiple Radio Access Technologies. The focus of this work was on the PS domain with the assumption that voice services are supported in this domain.
This study resulted in Rel-8 3GPP TR 23.882 and was followed by corresponding normative Rel-8 work.

Although the term "Evolved UTRA" implies a gradual enhancement of the existing 3rd generation UMTS system, it became finally a different radio access technology:

Nevertheless, UMTS/UTRA as well as LTE/E-UTRA use both a 10ms radio frame, both have FDD and TDD modes and LTE/E-UTRA supports full interoperability with UMTS/UTRA and GSM/GERAN/EDGE.

LTE-Advanced

Additional spectrum proposed for IMT systems by WRC-07 in 2007 (in 450 MHz band, in UHF band (698-960 MHz), in 2.3-2.4 GHz band, in C-band(3400-4200 MHz)) as well as the ITU-R request for the development of an IMT-Advanced radio interface (Circular Letter of March 2008) triggered developments of the 4th generation of mobile communication systems.

According to ITU-R M.1645 (overall objectives for beyond IMT-2000) and M.2134 (IMT-Advanced requirements) the key features for IMT-Advanced were summarized as follows:

3GPP was at that time in the phase to complete its Rel-8 LTE WI and it started an early Rel-9 study item (FS_RAN_LTEA, RP-091360) in March 2008 to define in 3GPP TR 36.913 the requirements for a mobile communication system called LTE-Advanced under the following conditions:

Note: The terms LTE-Advanced and Advanced E-UTRA are synonymous.

3GPP TR 36.913 on "Requirements for further advancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) (LTE-Advanced)" was approved at RAN #40 in June 2008 (still under Rel-8).

The following figure from ITU-R M.1645 illustrates the differences between IMT-2000 (3rd generation) and IMT-Advanced (4th generation):

In addition, the same study started in March 2008 a 3GPP TR 36.912 on Feasibility study for "Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced)" in order to analyse certain areas in which LTE could be enhanced, e.g.

to fulfill and exceed the IMT-Advanced requirements.

This TR 36.912 was approved in Sep.2009 (RAN #45) as Rel-9 TR and further updated at RAN #46 and RAN #47 (March 2010) where the SI was completed.

In Release 10 individual work items were started introducing enhancements of LTE that were discussed in the Rel-9 study item for LTE-Advanced:

Note: There is no separate Radio Access Technology "LTE-Advanced". All enhancements of LTE in Rel-10 and beyond are integrated into the LTE specifications as they were developed in Rel-8 and Rel-9.

3GPP contributed to IMT-Advanced project of ITU-R via an early preliminary input from RAN #41 in Sep.2008 (RP-080763) and a final submission including self-evaluation results from RAN #45 in Sep.2009 (RP-090939).

Note: RP-090939 includes RP-090745 which provides the characteristics of LTE-Advanced in a condensed template format.

In Jan. 2012, the Radiocommunication Assembly approved ITU-R Recommendation M.2012 "Detailed specifications of the terrestrial radio interfaces of International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced)" (RP-120005) and confirmed LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced radio interface technology.

Note 1: There is only one other IMT-Advanced radio interface technology called "WirelessMAN-Advanced" developed by IEEE).

Note 2: About every 2 years, ITU-R M.2012 is updated by 3GPP with latest enhancements.

LTE-Advanced Pro

 All enhancements of LTE of Rel-13 and beyond (if not related to 5G) are running under the trademark "LTE Advanced Pro", for example:

Note: For Rel-15 and onwards, LTE related specifications even carry the 5G logo as they were part of the SRIT IMT-2020 input (see 5G page for further explanation).

And a number of work items driven by LTE & NR:

And a number of work items driven by LTE & NR:

And a number of work items driven by LTE & NR:

LTE specifications can be found under: 3GPP TS 36.-series specifications (if only LTE is affected) or 3GPP TS 37.-series specifications (if also other radio access technologies like UMTS or GERAN or NR are covered in this specification), e.g. stage 2 in 3GPP TS 36.300.

3GPP TS 21.201 provides a list of all specifications related to the 4th generation (including core network EPC (Evolved Packet Core) and system aspects). The 4G network architecture is described in 3GPP TS 23.003

Introduction

Capacity limitations of 2nd generation mobile communication systems, an increasing demand for the support multimedia services (not mainly voice) and higher data rates as well as the request for a world wide mobile communication system triggered the introduction of a 3rd generation under the ITU-R umbrella IMT-2000 (see requirements in ITU-R M.1034 and ITU-R M.1457).

Among the terrestrial systems of IMT-2000 family the most successful 3rd generation mobile cellular technology was developed by 3GPP^TM under the name Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS^TM).

NOTE 1: There are/were also other names used for this system: Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA), 3GSM, ...).
NOTE 2: In the second half of the 1990s different regional proposals for the 3rd generation were developed based on CDMA (e.g. in ETSI SMG); their harmonization led to the foundation of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and finally to UMTS.

UMTS is offering greater spectral efficiency than GSM^TM and has 2 modes:

Both modes use direct sequence CDMA (code division multiple access) to separate the different users, i.e. each symbol of one user is multiplied by a user specific spreading code.
With this CDMA technique multiple users can transmit in the same (larger) band and the decoder, knowing the user's spreading code, can pick up the data of this user. The data of other users appears as noise in this decoding process.
Using a wide frequency band makes the system inherently resistant to many of the aspects of radio communication which plague narrow band systems, such as bursty noise, multipath reflections, and other interfering transmissions.

Both modes were originally (in the first release: Release 99) defined with a 10ms radio frame divided into 15 slots, a chiprate of 3,84Mchips/s and a channel spacing of 5MHz (note: GSM has just a channel spacing of 200kHz).

In terms of maximum user bit rates the requirements of the first UMTS release were (according to ETSI TR 101 111):

It is desirable that the definition of UTRA should allow evolution to higher bit rates.

In the 2nd release (Release 4) a further TDD option with 1,28Mchips/sec and 1,6MHz channel spacing was developed for China (but may be deployed also elsewhere), called TD-SCDMA or LCR (low chip rate) TDD. In Release 7 (5th release), a further TDD option with 7,68Mchips/sec and 10MHz channel spacing was developed; called VHCR (very high chip rate) TDD.

Maximum commonality between FDD and TDD variants is assured by a single set of higher layer protocols and shared physical layer parameters, as far as possible. A flexible radio protocol allows multiplexing of several services (speech, video, data...) on a single carrier. Real-time and non-real-time services are catered for by configurable quality of service parameters (delay, bit error probability, frame error ratio). The architecture allows for point-to-point and also point-to-multipoint services (broadcast, multicast).
And full interoperability (e.g. handover of voice calls) with GSM/GERAN/EDGE is also ensured.

UMTS was originally specified for operation in bands in the 2 GHz range (see 3GPP TS 25.101). Subsequently, it was extended to operate in a number of other bands, including those originally reserved for 2nd generation (2G) services.

UMTS was and still is continuously enhanced over several releases (also in parallel to developments of the 4th generation) e.g. by:

NOTE: The peak data rate figures above are given in ITU-R M.1457 for FDD.

Other enhancement areas were e.g. Home NodeBs, Machine Type Communication (MTC), Self Optimizing Networks (SON), WLAN interworking, Indoor Positioning, Active Antenna Systems (AAS), interference mitigation (a number of them were common WIs with the 4th generation in order to cater for commonalities and interworking).

From June 2016 onwards, UMTS was further developed/maintained by 3GPP TSG RAN WG6 ("GERAN and UTRAN radio and protocol") regarding its physical layer and layer 2/3 aspects. In June 2020 3GPP TSG RAN WG6 was closed and from this time onwards, this UMTS mainentance is carried out by 3GPP TSG RAN.

The radio related UMTS specifications are specified in 3GPP TS 25.-series specifications. See also ETSI standards search.

E.g. physical layer general description (3GPP TS 25.201); UTRAN stage 2 (3GPP TS 25.300), Radio interface protocol architecture (3GPP TS 25.301), UTRAN over all description (3GPP TS 25.401). 3GPP TS 21.101 provides a list of all 3rd generation specifications (including core network and system aspects). The overall network architecture of the 3rd generation can be found in 3GPP TS 23.002.

Harmonised Standards for IMT-2000

The terrestrial technologies of the IMT-2000 family are specified by the 3GPP^TM and 3GPP2 partnership projects, and by ETSI.

Radio equipment for the European market has to be conform to the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) which sets requirements on safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and effective use of the radio spectrum. Compliance to these requirements can be shown by compliance with so called Harmonised Standards.

Requirements for safety are available from CENELEC. ETSI provides input to the CENELEC standardization process.

Based on the European Commission Mandate M/536, ETSI has developed Harmonised Standards to enable radio equipment of the IMT-2000 family to be placed on the European market under the Radio Equipment Directive (RED). This addresses all IMT-2000 technologies that may potentially be deployed in Europe, not just those specified by ETSI and 3GPP.

The standards are developed and maintained by a joint Task Force within ETSI, known as TFES - there is one exception, EN 301 908-10, which is maintained by ETSI technical committee DECT.

TFES is open to all ETSI members. As its activities take account of the work of other standards and specification groups, participants in those groups are welcome to contribute to the work. If an interested party is unable to participate through an ETSI membership, the TFES chair can extend an individual invitation.

Introduction

The capacity limitations, the quality issues and the limitations to rather national mobile communication standards of the first analogue mobile communication systems led to the development of a 2nd generation of digital cellular mobile communication systems.

ETSI SMG developed with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) a second-generation digital cellular radio access technology for Europe that became a worldwide success and that is still operating today.

Over time this system was further evolved under the umbrella acronym GERAN (GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network):

and integrated into 3GPP^TM. GERAN was also the name of the 3GPP Technical Specification Group that was responsible for the development and maintenance of this system until June 2016. Afterwards, GERAN was further developed/maintained in 3GPP TSG RAN WG6 ("GERAN and UTRAN radio and protocol") and in June 2020 3GPP TSG RAN WG6 was closed and from this time onwards, GERAN mainentance is carried out by 3GPP TSG RAN.

The Technical Specifications which together comprise a 3GPP^TM system with a GSM/EDGE radio access network are listed in 3GPP TS 41.101.

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Our Role & Activities

The technology behind the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM^TM) uses Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation a variant of Phase Shift Keying (PSK) with Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signalling over Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) carriers. The physical layer is specified in 3GPP TS 45.001 and the logical channels in 3GPP TS 45.002. The channel coding is specified in 3GPP TS 45.003 and the modulation is specified in 3GPP TS 45.004.

Although originally designed for operation in the 900 MHz band, it was soon adapted for 1800 MHz. The introduction of GSM into North America meant further adaptation to the 800 and 1900 MHz bands. Over the years, the versatility of GSM has resulted in the specifications being adapted to many more frequency bands to meet niche markets. A full list can be found in 3GPP TS 45.005.

GSM has a channel spacing of 200kHz and was designed principally for voice telephony, but a range of bearer services was defined (a subset of those available for fixed line Integrated Services Digital Networks, ISDN), allowing circuit-switched data connections at up to 9600 bits/s. At the time of the original system design, this rate compared favourably to those available over fixed connections. However, with the passage of time, fixed connection data rates increased dramatically. The GSM channel structure and modulation technique did not permit faster rates, and thus the High Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD) service was introduced in the GSM Phase 2+.

In the course of the next few years, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) was developed to allow aggregation of several carriers for higher speed, packet-switched applications such as always-on internet access. The first commercial GPRS offerings were introduced in the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, investigations had been continuing with a view to increasing the intrinsic bit rate of the GSM technology via novel modulation techniques. This resulted in Enhanced Data-rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), which offers an almost three-fold data rate increase in the same bandwidth.

The combination of GPRS and EDGE brings system capabilities into the range covered by the International Telecommunication Unions IMT-2000 (third generation) concept.

GSM radio technology is specified in the 3GPP TS 45.-series specifications. The overall GSM network architecture is described in 3GPP TS 23.002 and a complete list of Technical Specifications for GSM systems is given in 3GPP TS 41.101.

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

The standard GSM^TM circuit-switched connection offers a data rate much too low for sophisticated web browsing and the transfer of large files, and as early as 3GPP Release 96 of the GSM specifications it was realized that a significant increase in speed could be obtained by aggregating two or more channels into a single, grouped, circuit-switched connection.

The specifications (3GPP TS 22.034 requirements, 3GPP TS 23.034 architecture) allow for up to four channels to be combined, giving 57.6 kbit/s (or 38.4 kbit/s in the USA). The service is known as High Speed Circuit Switched Data, HSCSD.

Since the four channels are tied up in a circuit-switched connection, the network operator was likely to charge an HSCSD call at a considerably higher rate than a simple, single channel call, and so the service was never enormously popular. HSCSD has been largely replaced by the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), which are more versatile, offer higher data rates, and are more economical.

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search. 

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), adds packet-switched functionality to GSM^TM, which is essentially circuit switched. GPRS is the essential enabler for always-on data connection for applications such as "web browsing" and "Push-to-Talk over Cellular".

GPRS was introduced into the GSM specifications in 3GPP Release 97 and usability was further upgraded in Releases 98 and 99. It offers faster data rates than plain GSM by aggregating several GSM time slots into a single bearer, potentially up to eight, giving a theoretical data rate of 171 kbit/s. Most operators do not offer such high rates, because obviously if a slot is being used for a GPRS bearer, it is not available for other traffic. Also, not all mobiles are able to aggregate all combinations of slots.

The 'GPRS Class Number' indicates the maximum speed capability of a terminal, which might be typically 14 kbit/s in the uplink direction and 40 kbit/s in the downlink, comparable with the rates offered by wireline dial-up modems at that time.

Mobile terminals are further classified according to whether or not they can handle simultaneous GSM and GPRS connections: class A = both simultaneously, class B = GPRS connection interrupted during a GSM call, automatically resumed at end of call, class C = manual GSM / GPRS mode switching.

Further data rate increases have been achieved with the introduction of EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution).

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

As its name suggests, EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) is an enhancement of the GSM^TM radio access technology to provide faster bit rates for data applications, both circuit- and packet-switched. As an enhancement of the existing GSM physical layer, EDGE is realized via modifications of the existing layer 1 3GPP specifications TS 45.000 rather than by separate, stand-alone specifications.

The increased data rate is accomplished by a new modulation technique (8PSK as opposed to GSM/GPRS's GMSK, yielding a three-fold increase in bit rate for an identical symbol rate) coupled with new channel coding, resulting in improved spectral efficiency. This is important, because it allows EDGE to be introduced piecemeal into existing GSM networks without disrupting the frequency reuse plan of the existing deployment.

In fact, to cater for the potentially increased sensitivity to noise in marginal coverage areas, EDGE uses a combination of 8PSK and GMSK, to give a balanced improvement in bit rate under virtually all radio conditions. The four coding schemes of GPRS are increased to nine in EDGE, and new segmentation techniques can radically improve throughput by permitting the coding scheme to be changed on the fly in case of retransmission of a segment in rapidly changing radio conditions. In addition, the packet window size increased to 1024 compared with the 64 for GPRS, resulting in more robust transmission and reception.

The implementation of EDGE is summarized in 3GPP^TM 3GPP TR 10.59  (later called 3GPP TR 50.059) - essentially a catalogue of Change Requests which introduced EDGE functionality into the existing specifications, for 3GPP Release 98. TR 10.59 / TR 50.059 has not been transposed into an official ETSI publication because it does not meet the necessary criteria. It remains, however, a very useful reference document.

EDGE is compatible with the North American cellular system, ANSI IS136.
A variant of EDGE, called 'EDGE Compact', would permit deployment in less than 1 MHz of spectrum; however, it was not felt interesting for US operators and was never implemented.

Other than providing improved data rates, EDGE is transparent to the service offering at the upper layers, so it is possible to apply EDGE on top of High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) and also on top of GPRS (which is then called EGPRS for Enhanced GPRS).

By way of illustration, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) can offer a data rate of 115 (and a theoretical data rate of 171) kbit/s whereas EDGE on top of GPRS can increase this theoretical data rate to 384 kbit/s. This is comparable with the rate for early implementations of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) of the 3rd generation of UMTS and a reason why EDGE is considered to be the bridge between the 2nd and the 3rd generation of mobile communication systems.

The list of the published ETSI standards on EDGE includes the same specifications of GSM (TS 43-, 44- and 45-Series, TS 51.010 for and 51.021, etc.).

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Introduction

The Experiential Networked Intelligence Industry Specification Group (ENI ISG) is defining a Cognitive Network Management architecture, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and context-aware policies to adjust offered services based on changes in user needs, environmental conditions and business goals. It therefore fully benefits all networks, including 5G networks, by providing automated service provision, operation, and assurance, as well as optimized slice management and resource orchestration. ENI has also launched Proof of Concepts (PoCs) aiming to demonstrate how AI techniques can be used to assist network operation including 5G.

The use of Artificial Intelligence techniques in the network will solve problems of future network deployment and operation.

Our Roles & Activities

ENI focuses on improving the operator experience, using closed-loop AI mechanisms based on context-aware, metadata-driven policies. This enables the ENI system recognize and incorporate new and changed knowledge, and hence make actionable decisions. This model gives recommendations to decision-making systems, such as network control and will interact with management systems, to adjust services and resources offered based on changes in user needs, environmental conditions and business goals.

ENI has published the first version of the System Architecture with Context Aware Policy Management, Categorization on Networks using AI Intent aware network Architecture, Data mechanisms, Evaluation of Categorization, functional concepts, Prominent control loop Architectures & Artificial intelligent mechanisms. Two versions of the Proof of Concept (PoC) Framework and three versions of the Use Cases, Requirements and Terminology in Release 2. A second version of the System Architecture has been published recently.

The System Architecture is being specified, with a new published version 2 including a high-level architecture using details of AI decision techniques. ENI has opened new work-items to collect release 3 of the Use cases, Requirements, and terminology, and a revised work item on categorization for AI application to Networks. ENI is also working on reports on the measuring of Evaluation of Classification, Intent knowledge within the Architecture and Data mechanisms, Data telemetry.

The Architecture is summarise as two control loops using AI modelling. Data Gathered is Passed via an optional API, Normalised and processed in a number of AI Analysis Functional Blocks, which may be recursive and interactive using an inner loop. The Actionable decision is then de-normalised and passed back to the network using the same optional API in reverse.

High Level Functional Architecture

The ENI System Architecture may be shown in various classes of operation. From less capable legacy systems Class 1 option 1 to fully interactive AI systems Class 3 option 2.

Classes and modes of operation

ENI has launched a continuing Proof of Concepts activity. A PoC review team was created and tasked with reviewing incoming proposals. The PoC review activity is supported by Vodafone, TIM, China Telecom, PT, Redhat, Samsung and Huawei. Each PoC Team proposal shall address at least one goal relevant to ENI, related with an ENI Use Case, an ENI Requirement or the suitability of the ENI System Architecture aspect. The output of each PoC project shall contribute to the completion of the version 2 specifications within ISG ENI, with the publication of the revised PoC Framework the proof of reference points between equipment is added. To improve the output of the work items the alignment with existing activities is required. Each PoC proposal will provide proof of the technical feasibility of ENI within the Industry. Proof of Concept (PoC) proposals are called for in line with the approved PoC framework. With the publication of the revised PoC Framework the proof of reference points between equipment is added.

Specifications

A full list of related specifications in the public domain is accessible via the ENI committee page.

Blog

The direct link to refer to this blog is https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/blogs/blog-eni

Introduction

The pivotal deployment of 5G and network slicing has triggered the need for a radical change in the way networks and services are managed and orchestrated. In particular there is a need to handle:

These new deployments come with an extreme range of requirements, including massive seemingly infinite capacity, imperceptible latency, ultra-high reliability, personalized services with dramatic improvements in customer-experience, global web-scale reach, and support for massive machine-to-machine communication.

Full end-to-end automation of network and service management has become an urgent necessity for delivering services with agility and speed and ensuring the economic sustainability of the very diverse set of services offered by Digital Service Providers. The ultimate automation target is to enable largely autonomous networks which will be driven by high-level policies and rules; these networks will be capable of self-configuration, self-monitoring, self-healing and self-optimization without further human intervention. All this requires a new horizontal and vertical end-to-end architecture framework designed for closed-loop automation and optimized for data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.

The ETSI ZSM (Zero-touch network and Service Management) group was formed in December 2017 with the goal to accelerate the definition of the required end-to-end architecture and solutions.

Our Roles & Activities

The ISG ZSM group works to strengthen the collaboration the relevant standardization bodies, open-source projects and fora in order to promote the adoption of and alignment with the ZSM architecture and solutions to ensure automated end-to-end network and service management can be achieved.

The relevant standardization bodies, open-source projects and fora in order to promote the adoption of and alignment with the ZSM architecture and solutions to ensure automated end-to-end network and service management can be achieved.

We have just embarked on an exciting journey towards the automation transformation that will help operators meet user expectations for service agility and create new business opportunities. End-to-end automation is a “big deal” and represents the industry’s coming years journey. The use of AI/ML will evolve incrementally. Findings from real deployments and operational experience need to be fed into the specification work.

The ISG ZSM encourages the creation of Proof of Concepts (PoCs) to demonstrate the viability of ZSM implementations. The results and lessons learned from the ZSM PoCs will be channelled to the ISG ZSM specification work. In its specification work, the ISG will take into consideration also feedback and findings from real deployments and operational experience.

Specifications

A list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ZSM committee page.

Blog

The direct link to this Blog is https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/blogs/blog-zsm

Introduction

Augmented Reality (AR) is the ability to mix in real-time spatially-registered digital content with the real world surrounding the user.

AR technologies and applications play an essential role in the development of “Smart Factories” or the “Industry 4.0” and are key for the success of “Smart Cities” and “Smart Home”. Mobility, retail, healthcare, education, tourism, and public safety are other examples of domains where AR will bring significant value. AR is also seen as an important technical enabler for the advent of the Metaverse.

The boundaries between digital and physical worlds are blurring and therefore AR as the tie between both worlds is quickly developing into a new phase of enabling context-rich user experiences that combine sensors, wearable computing, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. That capability offers a unique opportunity of value creation. AR technology will bring significant transformation to many areas of our economies in terms of productivity, competitiveness as well as the provision of new and innovative services for end-consumers.

The possibilities of using AR technology are manifold. AR applications will be deployed at different scales; at room scale, office, factory, city or even world scale. Applications may be used both indoor and outdoor, encountering various scene conditions and changing environments. To adapt to these different environments, AR applications need to rely on adequate methods to keep aligned and registered with the real world (e.g., by image markers, point clouds, 3D models). Considering large scale deployment, AR applications will need to distribute data and computing into the network and will benefit from the low latency, large bandwidth, and EDGE facilities of 5G networks and broadband networks. So, the need for transparent and reliable interworking between different AR components is key to the successful roll-out of such services.

Our Roles & Activities

There are various categories of AR applications but presenting digital information aligned with the real world implies the use of a set of common components offering functionalities such as tracking, registration, pose estimation, localization, 3D space mapping, and data injection.

ETSI is working on the definition and refinement of a framework for the interoperability of Augmented Reality (AR) components, systems, and services. The AR framework defines an overall high-level architecture, and describes key components and interfaces required for an AR solution.

The development of such a framework will allow components from different providers to interoperate through defined interfaces. This will in turn avoid the creation of vertical siloes and market fragmentation and enable players in the eco-system to offer part(s) of an overall AR solution.

Through its work, our Industry Specification Group (ISG) Augmented Reality Framework (ARF) will address the following goals:

The ISG acknowledges the work of relevant standardization bodies and open-source communities already developing technical specifications or solutions for AR and bases its activities on previous work done in this area, e.g. by collecting use cases developed by the AR community or by referencing already defined AR components. The ISG will ensure consistency with other activities in ETSI with regards to IoT, edge computing and 5G.

Specifications

A list of ETSI related standards in the public domain is accessible via the ARF committee page.

To accelerate NFV adoption and interoperability, a key enabler to NFV deployment, ETSI is running an innovative NFV Plugtests Programme. 

The NFV Plugtests Programme provides a continuous and ubiquitous environment for collaborative testing and validation activities among different organizations.

The programme, leverages the ETSI Hub for Interoperability and Validation (HIVE) to interconnect participants’ labs and allow for multi-party interoperability testing, PoCs, demos, API validation, etc. Remote activities are complemented by periodic Plugtests events allowing the Programme community to meet and run face to face intensive testing sessions.

ETSI NFV HIVE is currently interconnecting over 40 remote labs and being key for the success of the preparation of the NFV Plugtests events as well as the OSM Hackfest activities.
The NFV Plugtests Programme is supported by a number of key open source communities working in NFV solutions, such as ETSI OSM, Fog05, kubernetes, ONAP, Open Air Interface,  OpenDayLight, openslice, Open Stack and StarlingX.

The Programme is open to ETSI members and non-members free of charge. Organizations are invited to join by registering to an NFV Plugtests event or by contacting Plugtests@etsi.org.

Why do we need 5G?

So 5G should deliver significantly increased operational performance (e.g. increased spectral efficiency, higher data rates, low latency), as well as superior user experience (near to fixed network but offering full mobility and coverage). 5G needs to cater for massive deployment of Internet of Things, while still offering acceptable levels of energy consumption, equipment cost and network deployment and operation cost. It needs to support a wide variety of applications and services.

Comparison of key capabilities of IMT-Advanced (4th generation) with IMT-2020 (5th generation) according to ITU-R M.2083:

Who is interested in using 5G?

5G offers network operators the potential to offer new services to new categories of users.

What are the main usage scenarios of 5G?

ITU-R has defined the following main usage scenarios for IMT for 2020 and beyond in their Recommendation ITU-R M.2083:

which requires different key capabilities according to  ITU-R M.2083:

How is the 5G standard developed?

ITU-R has set up a project called IMT-2020 to define the next generation of mobile communication networks for 2020 and beyond with the following time plan:

See also the IMT-2020 schedule and IMT-2020 process.

At TSG #67 in March 2015, 3GPP formulated with SP-150149 a 3GPP timeline on how to contribute to this 5th generation of mobile networks.

In connection with RAN #69 in Sep. 2015, 3GPP held a workshop in Phoenix, USA in order to inform 3GPP about the ITU-R IMT-2020 plans and to share the visions and priorities of the involved companies regarding the next generation radio technology/ies.
The chair's summary (RWS-150073) formulated 3 next steps:

At RAN #69 in Sep.2015, 3GPP started a Rel-14 study item (FS_6GHz_CH_model, RP-160210) "Study on channel model for frequency spectrum above 6 GHz". This study completed at RAN #72 in June 2016 with the 3GPP TR 38.900.

Note 1: LTE-Advanced was so far aggregating spectrum of up to 100MHz and was so far operating in bands below 6GHz. This study looks at the frequency range 6-100GHz and bandwidths below 2GHz.

Note 2: The whole contents of this TR was later transferred into 3GPP TR 38.901 "Study on channel model for frequencies from 0.5 to 100 GHz" covering the whole frequency range.

At RAN #70 in Dec. 2015, 3GPP started already a Rel-14 study item (FS_NG_SReq, RP-160811) "Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies" with the goal to identify the typical deployment scenarios (associated with attributes such as carrier frequency, inter-site distance, user density, maximum mobility speed, etc.) and to develop specific requirements for them for the next generation access technologies (taking into account what is required for IMT-2020).
This study completed at RAN #74 in Dec. 2016 with the 3GPP TR 38.913 which describes scenarios, key performance requirements as well as requirements for architecture, migration, supplemental services, operation and testing.

In March 2016, ITU-R invited for candidate radio interface technologies for IMT-2020 in a Circular Letter. The overall objectives of IMT-2020 were set via ITU-R M.2083 and the requirements were provided in ITU-R M.2410 like e.g.:

The minimum requirements:

Other requirements:

At RAN #71 in March 2016, 3GPP started a Rel-14 study item (FS_NR_newRAT, RP-170379) "Study on New Radio (NR) Access Technology" with the goal to identify and develop the technology components to meet the broad range of use cases (including enhanced mobile broadband, massive MTC, critical MTC) and the additional requirements defined in 3GPP TR 38.913. This study completed at RAN #75 in March 17 with the Rel-14 3GPP TR 38.912 which is a collection of features for the new radio access technologies together with the studies of their feasibility and their capabilities.

Note: Included in this study item were also some RAN Working Group (WG) specific 3GPP internal TRs: 38.802 (RAN1), 38.804 (RAN4), 38.801 (RAN3), 38.803 (RAN4).

At RAN #75 in March 2017, 3GPP started a Rel-15 work item (NR_newRAT, RP-181726) on "New Radio Access Technology". Over time this WI got split into 3 phases addressing different network operator demands:

Note: Originally all other architecture options were supposed to be completed in this regular freeze phase as well. However, due to the extremely challenging time plan apart from option 2 only architecture option 5 (an LTE base station can be connected to a 5GC) was completed in this phase as well.

Note 1: Illustrations of the different architecture options can be found in 3GPP TR 38.801 (with the caveat that the terminology was not yet stable during this study phase).

Note 2: Rel-15 is distinguishing 2 frequency ranges: FR1: 450 MHz – 6000 MHz and FR2: 24250 MHz – 52600 MHz; while LTE is operating only in FR1, NR can operate in FR1 and FR2; FR1 is considered for NSA NR and FR2 is considered for SA NR.

As LTE-Advanced can fulfill parts of the IMT-2020 requirements for certain use cases the 3GPP input (called "5G") to IMT-2020 has 2 submissions:

Note: The terms RIT and SRIT are discussed and explained in RP-171584.

When was the 5G standard ready?

Splitting Rel-15 into multiple drops turned out to be very challenging, e.g.

Nevertheless, 3GPP contributed in time to the IMT-2020 schedule shown below:

Further 5G Enhancements

The Rel-16 stage 3 and ASN.1 freeze was carried out in June 2020.

The Rel-17 stage 3 was frozen in March 2022 and Rel-17 ASN.1 freeze was carried out in June 2022.

A revised input to IMT-2020 (i.e. ITU-R Recommendation M.2150 rev.2) was provided from RAN #98e in Dec.2022 in RP-223440 for the SRIT and RP-223441 for the RIT. Dec.2022 REL-17 specifications were used as inputs to the transposition.

Although most RAN1/2/3 led Rel-18 features were already approved in Dec.2021 and further RAN4 led Rel-18 features were approved in March 2022, the WGs focused on the Rel-17 completion and started Rel-18 work in RAN1 only after March 2022 and in RAN2/3/4 only after June 2022.

The RAN Rel-18 stage 3 freeze was in December 2023 and a corresponding Rel-18 ASN.1 freeze is intended for June 2024.

3GPP also contributed to the satellite component of IMT-2020:

A revised input to IMT-2020 (i.e. ITU-R Recommendation M.2150 rev.3), i.e. the terrestrial version, is planned using Dec.2024 REL-18 specifications.

Most RAN1/2/3 led Rel-19 features were approved in Dec. 2023 (see list below) and further RAN4 led Rel-19 features are planned for March 2024 and June 2024. RAN2/3/4 will still work on REL-18 completion so their REL-19 work will only start after March 2024.

Like with GERAN, UMTS and LTE in the past, 5G will be further evolved in the future to address the industry and customer demands.

Note: The description above is focussing on RAN work items and radio aspects but of course corresponding core network and system aspects were required and standardized as well. See the 3GPP workplan for a complete picture.

Where to find the corresponding 5G specifications?

A list of all 5G related specs (incl. core network and system aspects) is provided in 3GPP TR 21.205 or use this URL on the 3GPP website.

Radio related specifications addressing only NR: 38 series specifications.

Radio related specifications addressing only LTE: 36 series specifications.

Radio related specifications addressing aspects affecting both LTE and NR: 37 series specifications.

Service requirements for next generation new services and markets: 3GPP TS 22.261.

System Architecture for the 5G system (stage 2): 3GPP TS 23.501.

Procedures for the 5G System (stage 2): 3GPP TS 23.502.

NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall Description (stage 2): 3GPP TS 38.300.

NR; Multi-connectivity; Overall description (stage 2): 3GPP TS 37.340.

NG-RAN; Architecture description: 3GPP TS 38.401.

ETSI's 5G Building Blocks

ETSI has a number of component technologies which will be integrated into future 5G systems: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), Millimetre Wave Transmission (mWT) and Non-IP Networking (NIN).