The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a group of telecommunications standard development organizations, which produces technical specifications covering cellular telecommunications technologies. The 3GPP technologies from the 3GPP working groups are constantly evolving through generations of commercial cellular / mobile systems. With LTE and 5G work, 3GPP has become the focal point for the vast majority of mobile systems beyond 3G. More about 3GPP can be found in the About 3GPP subtopic {link here to “About 3GPP” subtopic}.

Although these generations have become an adequate descriptor for the type of network under discussion, real progress on 3GPP standards is measured by the milestones achieved in particular releases. New features are ‘functionality frozen’ and are ready for implementation when a Release is completed (see Release dates at the 3GPP portal). At this point, the specifications can be published by the 3GPP Partner Organizations as standards. 3GPP works on several releases in parallel, starting future work well in advance of the completion of the current release. Although this adds some complexity to the work of the groups, such a way of working ensures that progress is continuous and stable.

Fig. 1: Overview of 3GPP releases and generations.

Every release specifies an agreed set of features introduced based on the technical contributions of the individual 3GPP members and their discussions in respective groups. Finishing certain release does not automatically confirm its features availability in the mobile communication equipment (e.g., UEs, access network, core network, operation and maintenance). Specific features set availability is based on the market interest. Usually, telecommunication suppliers need to see a certain demand for usage of a specific feature to start introducing it into their products. Here the potential customers (e.g. mobile operators, system integrators, service providers, end users) play an important role in lobbying by putting pressure on and requesting from suppliers their functional needs. Market availability of specific features from a 3GPP release is entirely based on the market demand. 5G-ACIA as one of the market representation partners of 3GPP plays important role in stating the market requirements (e.g., services, features and functionality) towards 3GPP while at the same time the available 3GPP features implementation into telecommunication equipment needs additional efforts from all participants.

 Fig. 2: An overview of the 3GPP standard releases. (source 3GPP)

Release implementation process into the telecommunication equipment usually needs even more time after a release is ready in 3GPP and is published by the organizational partners of 3GPP as standards:

Fig. 3. Outline of the process from standarization to implementation of releases and features.