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