Issue 9 of Highlights again attempts to reflect a diversity of material and a broad range of interests from the 3GPP groups and from our partners.

Our Technical Highlights this time include some insights from the leadership – on the status of the latest release and the evolving plan for Release 20. As Rel-19 continues its progress and remains the main focus of specification work, until its completion in late 2025, the early stage workshops around Rel-20 already show that it is shaping up as a major bridge from 5G Advanced to 6G studies – and onwards towards its normative phase from Release 21 onwards.

The detailed technical articles in this issue range from Security for 5G roaming, Management support of new network features and services, an operator perspective on Network Sharing Evolution, news on 3GPP Capability Exposure APIs, Edge computing in CT protocols, and an article on the latest protocol descriptions and interface design to support network automation.

There is also a first look at the WG SA1 approach to their Study Item Description and the schedule for the first draft of the resulting Technical Report (TR 22.870 - Study on 6G Use Cases and Service Requirements).

Partner Focus

Four of the official Market Representation Partners (MRPs) have also penned their latest thinking on how 3GPP can help their members towards a better and bigger 6G world.

TCCA raise the need for both 5G Advanced and future 6G to continue to help societies to a greater position of trust in the network. The Alliance for private networks tell us about how Uni5G™ technology blueprints are simplifying private network deployment for industry verticals. Adrian Scrase makes his return to Highlights, with his GSA article on maintaining an effective supply chain for goods and services in challenging times. Finally, General Chairs of 5G-ACIA have looked at the status & progress of Industrial 5G to date and the lessons learnt for the journey towards Industrial 6G.

As always, we hope that you enjoy this new issue of ‘Highlights’. You can subscribe to it here: https://www.3gpp.org/news-events/3gpp-newsletters