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TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

5G ADVANCED IN THE MAKING –

THE TSG SA APPROACH TO RELEASE 18

By Georg Mayer, 3GPP TSG SA Chair

Over the last 20 years 3GPP has continuously produced The candidate items for Rel-18 include:
specifications to enable companies to implement and deploy
a global mobile communication infrastructure, which in its • Immersive Media and Virtual/Artificial/Extended Reality (XR)
fifth generation not only serves smartphone users with faster Media support in Working Group (WG) SA4 and WG SA2.
connections, more bandwidth and higher reliability but also • New work areas for Internet of Things (e.g. passive IoT (WG SA2)
enables mobile services for a large and growing number and application capability exposure for IoT platforms (WG SA6)).
of industries.
• Proposals to for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
5G roll out is accelerating, already over 30% of all countries have Services Transport and Management (WGs SA2, SA5).
5G coverage. Public Safety networks are being migrated to 5G
technologies. Car, train, ship manufacturers and infrastructure • Concepts for integration and migration of existing vertical
providers develop new products which wouldn’t be possible infrastructure, e.g. for railway networks (WG SA6).
without the specifications developed by 3GPP. • Examples for proposed enhancements to existing 3GPP services
and functionalities include:
Our eyes are now also turned to the skies, as satellite operators
and manufacturers work to provide 5G access, so that every o Network Slicing (WGs SA2, SA5)
location on our planet will provide a connection to the 5G o Edge Computing (WGs SA2, SA5, SA6)
eco-system. Many of these advancements were just visions
and buzzwords in 2015, when 3GPP started working on 5G in o Autonomous Networks (WG SA5)
Release 15. By the end of 2017 the first set of 5G specifications o Service Based Architecture (WGs SA2, SA5)
was released, enabling operators to roll out early deployments, o Northbound APIs (WG SA6)
bringing the first 5G phones to the market in less than four years o Non-Public Networks (WG SA2)
from the start of specification work.
o Satellite 5G Networks (WG SA2)
Based on our release concept, where one release usually has o Drone support (WG SA2)
a length of 15 to 24 months, 3GPP has now further evolved
the 5G radio and network related architectures, introducing o 5G Multicast and Broadcast (WG SA2)
modern generic service enabling technologies and integrating o Location Services (WG SA2, SA6)
more requirements from different industrial sectors, such as o Management Data Analytics (WG SA5)
manufacturing, health care, utilities and agriculture. o Mission Critical Services (WG SA6)
3GPP Release 18 – Over 70 Items Proposed
Now, as Release 17 is nearing its completion, we see new ideas, This provides only a very short overview of the over 70 study and
technologies and requirements on the horizon which ask not only work items which are currently proposed in 3GPP to become part
for a straight evolution of the existing 5G system but need special of the first 5G Advanced release.
focus. With this in mind, 3GPP decided to take an important next
step in the succession of mobile communication generations by “...the topic of energy efficiency will get
making Release 18 (Rel-18) the first “5G Advanced”
branded release. more attention from Rel-18 onwards.”
In September 2021 a two day
Workshop on 3GPP Rel-18
was held by 3GPP Technical Also, the topic of energy efficiency will get more attention from
Specification Group Service Rel-18 onwards. 3GPP TSG SA is currently discussing different
and System Aspects (TSG SA), mechanisms to ensure that all its technologies are developed to be
during which all companies inherently energy efficient.
could present their visions and As every release has only limited time, not all proposed items will
plans for the new release. Over 40 contributions from different make it into the final Rel-18 content, to be approved by 3GPP
members of 3GPP were received and showed the variety and TSGs SA, RAN and CT in December 2021. Therefore, at this
diversity of what the different industries expect 5G to become moment in time no reliable statements can yet be made about the
over the next few years. content of Rel-18 will be.

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