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TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS

AGREEING ON THE CONTENT

OF 3GPP RELEASES

By Georg Mayer, 3GPP TSG SA Chair

The recently approved list of 3GPP Release 18 items is an We are not talking about only mobile network operators,
impressive collection of the broad variety of topics that 3GPP network equipment vendors, mobile phone and chipset
will work on over the next one and a half to two years. More manufacturers here but also about companies from the so-
than 6 months of intensive discussions, negotiations and called vertical industries such as railways, car manufacturers,
prioritizations were necessary prior to the list’s approval by public safety organizations, satellite operators and automated
consensus amongst all of the companies taking part in the factory planners, to name just a few.
discussions.

A 3GPP Working Group usually has 15 to 18 months to work on What makes them all agree?
a Release, to make sure that all of their relevant topics fit into
a strict timeline. The Release-mechanism, intentionally makes
time a scarce resource – allowing 3GPP specifications to be The basic driving force for cooperating towards a common
developed “close to the market need”, i.e. many of the issues set of features is the benefit that a common global standard
that are discussed today will be deployed in real products provides to all stakeholders and their customers. This
within one or two years after the Release has been frozen is a simple truth that the public has learned to take for
(completed). Additionally, experience has shown us that the granted over the last 30 years, during which the efforts in
major benefit of short releases is that they act as an assurance telecommunication standards have made global mobility
that only the most relevant topics make it onto the release list. possible and are now working towards a global mobile enabler
platform for industrial services.

The Magic of Consensus Customers assume it to be natural that they can get a
connection with their mobile phone in whichever country they
travel to. In the same way, the underlying technologies for self-
But as there is no objective mechanism to predict the success driving cars, factories of the future and next generation health
of certain features in the market, how can these relevant topics services will all soon be available everywhere.
be identified? Here the requirement of consensus comes
into play. What does consensus mean within a standards The continual development of 3GPP systems not only enables
developing body like 3GPP? Simply put it means that in the new businesses, it also is key to the future development of whole
end nobody will say “no” or put forward an objection to the societies and more generally for technology not being a barrier
items on the list. but an enabler for worldwide communication and collaboration,
be it for business, private reasons or research.
For anybody who was part of the early discussions on Release
18 content this might seem like magic, as the long lists This is the “magic” that makes it possible for companies to find
of topics initially proposed to be part of the Release were consensus on which topics to take forward within a 3GPP release.
heavily disputed. It is also hard to believe that an organization Obviously, the views on what is necessary to be done still differ
which has over 750 Individual Members, many of them a lot in the beginning of such discussions, as all companies
fierce competitors in the related markets, some of them come from different backgrounds. Coming to such conclusions
in customer-client relationships, all from a broad variety of therefore usually takes more than half a year of moderated
industry backgrounds, can find a common view on a list of discussions in the different 3GPP Working Groups (WGs) and
items. Technical Specification Groups (TSGs).

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