January 28, 2022

Three diverse and exciting partners have joined 3GPP and are now finding their way into the technical work, through their members' contributions or via direct liaisons with the 3GPP groups.

As a Market Representation Partner (MRP) the Open Generation Consortium, MulteFire Alliance and the 5G Slicing Association have a lot to offer the project, not only by taking 3GPP 5G work into new areas, but also by providing a way for their memberships interests to be presented to the 3GPP groups.

A look at the recent growth of market partner participation in 3GPP (image right) shows a clear boost in activity, with the beginnings of the 5G effort.

Since the start of 2016 a variety of new partners - covering areas as diverse as public safety procurement, automotive, broadcast, satellites, industrial automation – have become 3GPP MRPs. Now they are joined by three new bodies, bringing work on non-public networks, UAS and 5G slicing into focus for 3GPP.

Introducing the three new MRPs in 3GPP:

The Open Generation Consortium (OGC)

The OGC is a collaboration of private industry, non-profits and universities. They are working together to define & test specific use cases in experimental testbeds for enterprise and vertical applications - taking uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) into a variety of new sectors, including public safety, remote healthcare, smart cities and evolving autonomous vehicles. The results of the OGC’s work will feed back into 3GPP’s work on UAS.

The MulteFire Alliance (MFA)

The MFA champions the adoption of private cellular networks using MFA-defined MulteFire specifications for LTE and 5G systems. As an MRP in 3GPP, the MFA will bring guidance on market led requirements for services, features and functionality of private networks, whether in unlicensed, shared or licensed spectrum.

The 5G Slicing Association (5GSA)

The 5GSA gathers the common requirements for network slicing self-management between industries, including: multimedia, electric power, industrial Internet and healthcare bodies. The Association is working on a coordinated roadmap for 5G Service Levels for Network Slicing – across Chinese industry. This work is of great interest to the broader 3GPP community and will help shape future requirements in this area.

Details of all of the partners in 3GPP can be found at https://www.3gpp.org/about-3gpp/partners

Contact for this article: Kevin FLYNN, Marketing and Communications Officer, 3GPP