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TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

AN EARLY VIEW OF THE RAN

TOPICS FOR 5G-ADVANCED

By Wanshi Chen, 3GPP TSG RAN Chair

3GPP is playing an increasingly important The Release 18 workshop comes at the • eMBB-driven evolution;
role in driving the standardization and right time, as 5G NR enters its “2nd • Non-eMBB-driven evolution;
commercialization of 5G NR, not only for phase” of standardization in 3GPP. 5G • Cross-functionalities for both eMBB-
traditional enhanced mobile broadband NR in Release 15 built a solid foundation driven and non-eMBB-driven evolution.
(eMBB) services, but also for expansion in accommodating diverse services, a The RAN workshop drew tremendous
into new services in the so-called vertical wide range of spectrum, and various amount of interest. There were more than
domain (e.g., V2X, industrial, broadcast deployments scenarios. Expansion into 500 contributions submitted before the
and multicast, etc.). This is evidenced by vertical domains got a tremendous deadline, sourced from about 80 different
the successful completion of the first 5G boost in Release 16, which was further companies and organizations. Similar to
NR releases (Releases 15 and 16) and accelerated in Release 17. In April 2021, other 3GPP meetings in 2020 and 2021,
the meticulous work in completing the the Project Coordination Group (PCG) in the workshop was hosted electronically
latest 5G NR release (Release 17) despite 3GPP approved the term 5G-Advanced via emails and conference calls. The
the extreme challenges faced due to the and a new logo to be used from Release number of checked-in participants for the
COVID-19 Pandemic. 18, the “2nd phase” of 5G NR’s evolution
in TSG RAN. conference calls was more than 1,200!
It is evident that the submissions to the
RAN Rel-18 workshop exhibit a generally
“5G-Advanced: A great opportunity for the group balanced evolution, in terms of the
to look into projects - not just for incremental following aspects:
• Balanced mobile broadband evolution
enhancements, but aiming a bit further towards vs. further vertical domain expansion,
the horizon.” • Balanced immediate vs. longer term
commercial needs, and,
• Balanced device evolution vs.
During an already busy time, we recently The start of 5G-Advanced from Release network evolution.
organized our 3GPP RAN Release 18 18 in 3GPP warranted a more thoughtful
workshop (June 28 – July 2), a first step organization of the RAN workshop. It This is consistent with the general
towards the finalization of TSG RAN offers a great opportunity for the group to objectives for 5G-Avanced. I expect that
projects starting from December 2021 look into projects not just for incremental the demand for a well balanced evolution
and March 2022, the time when Release enhancements but aiming a bit further will be reflected in the subsequent
17 reaches its functional freeze date in towards the horizon. To that end, the email discussions and also in the final
RAN WG1, and in RAN WG2/WG3/WG4, agenda was drafted by inviting proposals Rel-18 package.
respectively. in three different tracks:

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