4.6 Creation of 3GPP 4.7 How does 3GPP Operate? 4.11 Beyond 3GPP Release ’99.

4.6 Creation of 3GPP4.7 How does 3GPP Operate?4.11 Beyond 3GPP Release ’99

The standardization organizations involved in the creation of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)◦ ARIB (Japan)◦ ETSI (Europe)◦ TTA (Korea)◦ TTC (Japan)◦ T1P1 (USA)

Figure 4.2: the manufacturers and operators that are members of 3GPP through the respective standardization organization

1999, CWTS (the China Wireless Telecommunication Standard Group)◦ joined 3GPP and contributed technology from TD-

SCDMA, a TDD-based CDMA 3G technology already submitted to ITU-R earlier

3GPP also includes market representation partners◦ GSM Association◦ UMTS Forum◦ Global Mobile Suppliers Association◦ IPv6 Forum◦ Universal Wireless Communications Consortium

(UWCC)

3GPP◦ the end of 1998

initiated formally◦ early 1999

detailed technical work was started◦ the end of 1999

the first version of the common specification, Release ’99

Within 3GPP, four different technical specification groups (TSGs) were set up◦ Radio Access Network TSG

the one most relevant to WCDMA technology◦ Core Network TSG◦ Service and System Aspects TSG◦ Terminals TSG

Radio Access Network TSG (RAN TSG) has been divided into four different working groups (WGs) (Figure 4.3)

During 2000◦ further work on GSM evolution was moved from

ETSI and other forums to 3GPP◦ including work on GPRS and EDGE◦ a new TSG, TSG GERAN was set up for this

purpose

In 3GPP the work is organized around work items◦ define the justification and objective for a new

feature For a smaller topic

◦ only a single work item in one working group if the impacts are limited to that group

For bigger items◦ such as HSDPA◦ there were work tasks done for each of the four

RAN working groups◦ these work tasks were under a common work

item, named HSDPA For a larger topic

◦ a feasibility study is needed before the decision of actually creating a work item

Feasibility study◦ simply focus on the pain vs. gain ratio of the new

feature◦ comparing the advantages and the resulting

impacts on the equipment and existing features (backwards compatibility)

For each work item a reporter is nominated◦ who has the responsibility of coordinating the

work and reporting the progress from WGs to TSG level

At TSG level◦ every meeting (called a plenary) monitors

progress every three months and makes any necessary synchronization between working groups and TSGs

If a work item is determined not to have reached the expected target◦ it may be altered or removed from the work

program

Once the work item is completed in all working groups◦ Change Requests (CRs) are brought to the

plenary for approval◦ CRs contain the changes needed in each

particular specification◦ once the plenary level approval is obtained, the

specification will be updated to a new version with the changes resulting from the new feature

The simplified illustration of the process from feasibility study to specification finalization is shown in Figure 4.4

Release 3 (Release ’99) March 2001

◦ Release 4 (Release 2000) contains only minor adjustments with respect to Release 1999

◦ Release 4 specifications contain robust IP header compression suitable for cellular transmission to enable an efficient Voice over IP (VoIP) service

March 2002◦ Release 5◦ bigger items included are High-Speed Downlink

Packet Access (HSDPA) and IP-based transport layer

Release 6◦ Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS)◦ HSDPA-related enhancements for uplink◦ radio resource management supporting

measurements for beamforming