5G Americas takes a deeper look into 5G specifications in the latest 3GPP Releases
Bellevue, WA- January 16, 2020–
Fifth generation (“5G”) wireless technologies hold great promise in unleashing
an array of groundbreaking digital services that will impact consumers and
industries over the next decade. 5G Americas today published a white paper
titled, The 5G Evolution: 3GPP Releases 16-17 highlighting new features in 5G that will define the next phase of 5G network deployments
across the globe.
According to data from Ovum, there
were approximately five million 5G subscriptions at the end of 2019, a number forecast
to increase to 1.9 billion by 2024. Additionally,
the number of IoT connections is expected to quadruple from one billion to over
four billion during the same time frame.
Chris Pearson, President of 5G
Americas said, “The age of smartly connecting everything is here. The rapid
increase in 5G-connected devices will be largely due to increased technical
capabilities of networks and devices standardized by 3GPP for commercial roll
outs.”
Since 1998, the Third Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP) has fostered the
wireless ecosystem by creating standards for cellular technologies aimed at
connecting virtually every mobile device and network. New features and
specifications are packaged into new releases, with Releases 15-17 forming the underlying
foundation for 5G commercial deployments.
Work on 5G standards started in
2015, with initial Release 15 specifications finalized in 2018 to address three
families of use cases of Enhanced Mobile Broadband, Massive Machine to Machine
Communications and Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Critical Communications. It laid
the groundwork for the fifth generation of mobile networks by providing the reference
network architecture for Massive Machine-Type Communications (MTC) and Internet
of Things (IoT), Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) enhancements, Mission-Critical
connectivity with legacy systems, wide-area and unlicensed spectrum support,
Networking Slicing, API connectivity for 3rd party access to 5G
services and the introduction of Service-Based Architecture.
The The 5G
Evolution: 3GPP Releases 16-17 white
paper highlights specific updates in Releases 16-17. Release 16 is an
evolutionary development that will positively impact multiple industries and is
expected to be finalized in March 2020. Release 17 provides additional improved
radio flexibility and will be 3GPP’s focus in 2020 and 2021 with target
standard finalization in July 2021.
Release 16 enhancements
include:
- Radio access technology improvements include enhancements
for LTE-MTC, NarrowBand-IoT, Downlink Multi-In Multi-Out (DL “MIMO”)
efficiency, mobility, performance in high speed scenarios and 5G terrestrial
broadcasts. Features of Release 16 boast enhanced capacity and improvement of
operation efficiency including: MIMO enhancements, Integrated Access and
Backhaul, Cross Link Interference/Remote Interference Management, User Equipment
(UE) Power Savings, Mobility Enhancements, Multi-Radio Access Technology
(“Multi-RAT”) dual connectivity and Carrier Aggregation enhancements, Ultra-Reliable
Low Latency Communications (URLLC), NR Unlicensed, NR Positioning, and 2-Step Random
Access Channel (“2-Step RACH”). - Network core architecture enhancements include Service-Based
Architecture, improved flexible deployments of Session Management Control
Function (SMF) and User Plane Function (UPF), support for commercial services
using location-based service architecture, enhancements to UE capability
signaling, RAN Self-Organizing Networks, and Dual Connectivity and Carrier
Aggregation improvements.
Release 17 improvements
include:
- Radio access technology improvements that add
more capabilities, including NR Beyond 52.6 GHz spectrum, Dynamic Spectrum
Sharing improvements, Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) enhancements,
NR-Light (Reduced Capability NR devices), Small Data Enhancements, more V2X enhancements
and General Sidelink Communication, NR Broadcast and Multicast, and Multi-SIM
support. - Network system upgrades include support for new
services for asset tracking, audio-visual service production, communication service
requirements for critical medical applications, service requirements on
enhancements for cyber-physical control applications in vertical domains,
multimedia priority services (phase 2), support for Multi-SIM devices, enhanced
relays for energy efficiency and extensive coverage, and others.
Erik Dahlman, Senior Expert at
Ericsson Research and leader for the project, said: “The evolution and
revolution in wireless continues with new standardized technical features at
3GPP as the mobile wireless industry connects more people and things in
existing and new markets. The defined cellular technology roadmap and success
of the wireless industry is a demonstration of 3GPP’s well-defined approach to
structure and consensus process.”
The paper The 5G
Evolution: 3GPP Releases 16-17 is available for free download on the 5G Americas
website. Blog
post by Chris Pearson, and presentation
slides are also featured on the 5G Americas website.
About 5G Americas: The Voice of 5G and LTE for the
Americas
5G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading
telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization’s mission
is to advocate for and foster the advancement and full capabilities of LTE
wireless technologies and their evolution to 5G, throughout the ecosystem’s
networks, services, applications and wirelessly connected devices in the
Americas. 5G Americas is invested in developing a connected wireless community
while leading 5G development for all the Americas. 5G Americas is headquartered
in Bellevue, Washington. More information is available at 5G Americas Website
and Twitter.
5G Americas’ Board of Governors members
include AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Ciena, Cisco, CommScope, Ericsson,
Intel, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung, Shaw Communications
Inc., Sprint, T-Mobile US, Inc., Telefónica and WOM.
Media Contact:
5G Americas
Viet Nguyen
+1 206 218 6393
[email protected]
Article Source – Posted with Permission
