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5G is an evolving standard. The initial version of 5G was finalized with the freezing of Release 15 in 2019, and new features were incorporated in versions 16 and 17 between 2020 and 2022. Further enhancements to features defined in previous versions, along with new features, will be part of Release 18, which is currently in preparation and expected to be frozen by the end of 2023.
In parallel, 6G is being studied in institutes, universities, companies, and technical groups, and is expected to have its first Release around 2027/2028, entering commercial operation in 2029/2030. This article provides a summarized view of all 5G releases, from 15 to 18.
The 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) develops and maintains global technical specifications to ensure that manufacturers of network equipment, smartphones, CPEs, and endpoints in general develop products that are interoperable worldwide. 3GPP is a collaborative entity among regional standardization organizations. The seven telecommunications standards development organizations (or 3GPP Organizational Partners) use these specifications to create the standards.
Participants, including NEPs (vendors) and carriers (operators), participate in the creation of specifications from initial R&D to the final product. Ideas are brought to the body for approval, which translate into a study item, followed by work items in periodic meetings, resulting in technical specifications.
The 3GPP partners or standard development organizations are:
The role of these standardization bodies is:
Example of how this organization works:
Below is the history of all Releases, from 2G (GSM, GPRS, Edge), 3G (WCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+), 4G (LTE, LTE-Advanced, LTE-Pro) and 5G/NR.
All 3GPP specifications provide a complete description of systems for mobile telecommunications and provide connectivity for non-radio access to the core network and interoperability with non-3GPP networks. The three Technical Specification Groups (TSG) in 3GPP are:
The first version of 5G specifications appeared in 3GPP Release 15 in 2018, which provided the SBA architecture, basic functionalities, as well as a large set of optional features. In subsequent versions, 3GPP added new functionalities to the existing baseline. This is done while maintaining backward compatibility, so that older terminals still work on updated networks and vice versa (interoperability).
3GPP adds functionalities necessary to meet the growing demands of existing services (higher data rates for mobile broadband, for example) or to satisfy requirements for new services, use cases, and deployment options (such as public safety and relay applications). However, features are typically specified in a service- and use-case-independent manner, meaning it is up to vendors and operators to decide how to use and combine the specified features.
3GPP specs are then implemented in market solutions, such as those from manufacturers like Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, Samsung, ZTE, Mavenir, Dell, etc. There is no mandatory interoperability between these manufacturers, although 5G Release specs are based on the SBA architecture, which provides for the deployment of functional blocks in virtualized mode, in VNFs and CNFs. However, interconnection of solutions between vendors is not common.
5G was defined by a set of minimum requirements that allow for certain use scenarios. These cases were named by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as IMT2020. Three major groups of use cases were defined, each with its own set of applications and services, sharing the same bandwidth, availability, and latency requirements:
Key Requirements:
Release 15 focused primarily on eMBB services, with NSA (Non-Standalone) networks still dependent on 4G LTE:
Key features of 5G NR Release 15:
Release 16 was a complementary version, necessary to expand the general system specifications of Release 15. The main focus of Release 16 is to enable URLLC for mission-critical applications. Release 16 brought extensions for:
Alongside enhancements aimed at existing use cases in Releases 15 and 16, 3GPP Release 17 presents support for new cases, including public safety, non-terrestrial networks, and private networks. 5G-Advanced will be based on Release 17, providing intelligent network solutions.
A key component of 5G-Advanced is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on Machine Learning (ML) techniques. AI/ML-based solutions will be used to introduce intelligent network management and solve optimization problems regarding real-time and non-real-time network operation. It will also be used to improve the radio interface, optimizing the performance of complex multi-antenna systems. New use cases, such as Extended Reality (XR) communication, will use wireless networks to provide immersive experiences.
Release 18 represents a major evolution of the 5G System, and 3GPP decided to designate it as the first launch of 5G-Advanced. It will include major enhancements in the areas of artificial intelligence and extended reality.
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