RAN WG4 contribution handling procedures

 

1            Presenting a contribution to a RAN WG4 meeting

RAN WG4 deals with more than 1000 contributions each year, this huge amount of documents requires some rules for administration. Each contribution presented to a meeting has a tdoc (temporary document) number. These numbers are allocated by the secretary of the group upon request from the delegates. In order to obtain a tdoc number, the delegate shall provide the secretary some information (title, source...) about his contribution. This shall be made by means of the tdoc request template, which is available in the following location:

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/WG4_Radio/Templates/R4_Tdoc_Req_Sheet.zip

The use of the tdoc request template is mandatory, even for a single tdoc number request.

For each contribution requested, all the required fields shall be carefully completed following the tips included in the template. The file shall be sent by email to the secretary, who will send back the allocated numbers. The person presenting the contribution will then send the file to the secretary or the email reflector. The secretary will upload the file to the ftp server and make it available to the participants at the beginning of the meeting.

A deadline to make documents available will be set for each meeting, so the rest of the participants can review the contributions before the meeting.

RAN WG4 email list has more than 900 subscribers. Big attachments produce congestion and could cause the list server to collapse, therefore only small size files can be sent to the list.

 

2            Types of contributions

Participants may present contributions of the following types to a RAN WG4 meeting:

-     Change Request: Modifications to a 3GPP TS or TR under change control. The group shall either agree, reject, postpone or withdraw the CR.

-     Outgoing Liaison Statement: A communication to another group endorsed by RAN WG4. The decision of the group shall either be to approve, reject, postpone or withdraw the LS.

-     Document for approval: A proposal to be reviewed by the group. The group shall take a decision on it.

-     Document for discussion: A contribution to be reviewed by the group. The group doesn't have to take a decision on it.

-     Document for information: It can be additional information, it might not be presented during the meeting. The group doesn't have to take a decision on it.

-     Other: The contribution doesn't fit in one of the previous categories.

 

3            Contribution naming

Based on the tdoc number allocated by the secretary, the contributions to RAN WG4 meetings will have a name that shall be used to name the files. To create this name, the following rule applies:

                                                                                   R4-yyxxxx

where

R4 is the name of the group

yy is the current year (01 for year 2001)

xxxx is the number allocated by the secretary, and it is always 4 digits. This means that for numbers lower than 1000, it shall be zero padded on the left.

The following are examples of correct names:

R4-000001              First contribution presented in year 2000

R4-010040              40th contribution in year 2001

R4-021678              1678th contribution in year 2002

The following are examples of incorrect names:

R4_010011, R4-(01)0123, R4-01-12, R4-010234_some_text_here

 

4            Types of files for Contributions

The standard file type for contributions is Microsoft Word document file. Other types of contributions should be converted to MSWord format. Only in the cases where the conversion is not possible, or implies losing contents or the resulting Word file has a big size, the contribution can be presented in other format. The only alternate formats allowed are Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or Adobe Acrobat document (.pdf).

The file name shall be EXACTLY the name of the contribution. For a Word document, it shall be R4-yyxxxx.doc.

The file shall be made available compressed with WinZip, and the name of the zip file shall be EXACTLY the same as the contribution (R4-yyxxxx.zip)

Each contribution should be in a single file. As an exceptional situation, several files may be required for the same contribution. In this case, the name of the files shall begin with R4-yyxxxx. Additional text for clarification can be added. The different files of the contribution shall be zipped together in a zip file named R4-yyxxxx.zip. Note that this is the only case where the file name doesn't follow the rule. This exception shall NEVER be used for Change Requests, i.e. CRs shall be standalone MSWord documents.

For example, a contribution with a MSPowerPoint presentation and a MSWord file can be as follows:

-     R4-011965_presentation.ppt

-     R4-011965_discussion.doc

zipped into R4-011965.zip

 

5            Change Requests

Change Requests are a very special type of documents. The group must imperatively take a decision on them, and they may be forwarded to TSG RAN for approval. In order to minimize the errors, strict requirements apply:

-     A CR cover sheet shall be used for each Change Request. The fields in the cover sheet shall be filled in carefully, following the tips included. This cover sheet can be found in the following location:

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/information/

-     One contribution can contain only one Change Request. If a number of related CRs are presented together (i.e. same change to different specifications, or related changes to the same specification), a different contribution, and therefore a different tdoc number, shall be used for each.

-     A contribution with a CR can only contain the CR. Any additional explanatory information shall be presented in a different contribution. The first page of the document shall be the CR cover sheet, and the following pages the change request itself as explained in the CR cover sheet.

-     The file naming procedures, as explained in section 2, apply imperatively in the case of contributions presenting CRs.

5.1           Category A Change Requests

For each agreed CR to a specification belonging to an old release, a category A CR shall be presented for the subsequent releases. An old Release is any 3GPP Release that it is not the last one. The Cat. A CR shall implement exactly the same changes as the original one, but adapted if necessary to the specification in the newer Release.

If a CR to an old Release doesn't have a corresponding Category A for the following Releases, it will not be presented in RAN WG4. It is the duty of the company presenting the first CR to provide Category A CRs.

 

6            Document headers

All contributions presented to a RAN WG4 meeting shall have a header in the top of the first page. The header shall contain the following information:

-     The name of the group and the meeting number, left aligned.

-     The city, country and dates of the meeting, left aligned.

-     The document name, right aligned.

The header shall be included as normal text, NOT in the MS Word header and NOT in a table. The following is an example of a correct header:


3GPP TSG RAN WG4 Meeting #17                                                    R4-010421

Gothenburg, Sweden 21st - 25th May 2001


 

7            RAN WG4 templates

The following templates are available for each RAN WG4 meeting:

-     Tdoc request template: This template shall be used by any participant to ask for a contribution number (see section 1)

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/WG4_Radio/Templates/R4_Tdoc_Req_Sheet.zip

-      LS template: This template may be used as a basis for the liaison statements to other groups

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/information/

-     CR template: This template is the standard 3GPP CR cover sheet.

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/information/

-     Default document template: This template may be used as a basis for any contribution that is not a CR.

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/WG4_Radio/Templates/R4_Tdoc_Template.zip