The two management meetings of 3GPP - the Project Coordination Group (PCG) and the Organizational Partners (OP) meeting - have ratified some important decisions last week in New Delhi, hosted by the TSDSI - the Indian SDO.

Discussions on how to improve the organization and coordination of work among the 3GPP groups were fruitful, with general agreement on the best way to support the increased demand for meetings during the current Release and in the future - as we begin normative work on 3GPP 5G.

In addition, some specific topics of interest were addressed:

New terms of reference for 3GPP RAN

The meetings approved the revised Terms of Reference for TSG RAN, bringing the responsibilities of GERAN1 and GERAN2 working groups – covering legacy GSM and EDGE radio - in to a new RAN Working group (RAN6), with the GERAN test specifications work moving to RAN5.

With the approval of this new structure, the GERAN group will cease to operate at the completion of outstanding 3GPP Release 13 specifications, leaving three Technical Specification Groups (TSGs) in 3GPP – covering Radio Access Networks (RAN), Service & System Aspects (SA) and Core network & Terminals (CT).

The GERAN Chairman - Olof Liberg – was thanked for his services to GERAN and for the successful merger of the GERAN work in to TSG RAN.

Korean Ministry sends thanks to 3GPP

During the meeting, TTA - The Korean SDO and OP in 3GPP - introduced a letter from Mr. Jang Seokyoung - Director General of the Office of Internet Convergence Policy at the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning - thanking 3GPP for the completion of Public Safety features within Release 13.

The letter expressed appreciation of 3GPP's work, which has allowed the Korean Government to adopt LTE for its nationwide broadband public safety network, predicting that "with such efforts by 3GPP working groups, it is expected that the national LTE networks for public safety will be deployed as planned in Korea, as well as in the US and the UK, based on 3GPP Release 13 specifications."

New Partners in 3GPP

The Global Certification Forum (GCF) and the CTIA have now been approved as Market Representative Partners (MRPs) in 3GPP.

Eshwar Pittampalli, Director, Wireless Technology CTIA, presented the Association's application for MRP status, observing that the "CTIA are looking forward to helping advance LTE and future 5G technologies."

For the GCF - Lars Nielsen emphasised that a standards based certification provides an assurance of interoperability between devices and networks. He mentioned that “having 3GPP coordination with GCF on which test cases to give priority to has been very successful.” Giovanni Romani, the RAN Vice Chairman, welcomed the GCF coming in to 3GPP as a partner, commenting that "the GCF is one of the big clients for RAN5 (the terminal conformance testing group of 3GPP) and the relationship works very well."

Both the CTIA and the GCF were accepted as MRPs in 3GPP.

Farewell

Finally, the PCG and OP meetings in New Delhi were the last for Dr Kyu-Jin Wee, the TTA Head of Delegation, as he approaches retirement. A vote of thanks was recorded for the many years of support that Dr Wee has provided 3GPP.

Contact for this article: Kevin FLYNN, Marketing and Communications Officer, 3GPP