GERAN #37

| TSG CT | TSG SA | TSG RAN | 

Previous Highlights:
 

| GERAN #29, #30, #31, #33

Welcome!

Welcome to the latest edition of TSG Highlights! The aim is to provide you with a concise summary of the decisions and actions of the most recent 3GPP Technical Specification Group meetings. 
TSG GERAN held a plenary meeting on February 18th - February 22nd, 2008 in Seoul, South Korea.

Please note, these summaries do not constitute formal, approved reports of the meetings – they are opinions only and also may not be complete. They are offered for guidance only.

GERAN#37 plenary meetings

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TSG GERAN Evolution

 

Registration in densely populated areas.


A paper presenting the motivation for a 2G solution was discussed:
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ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) for GSM

 

  • Exhaustive requirements are needed so proper evaluation of solutions / limitations can be done:

some limitations have been identified (e.g., paging capacity, Network Mode of Operation, MS class, terminal stand-by time...)

  • In particular:
legacy MSs: support of legacy MSs is not excluded as per regulatory requirements, but a definition of "legacy MSs" is needed:
  • what are the minimum MS capabilities required for reception of the ETW information ?
delivery mechanism: which of the currently specified services are expected to be used for ETWS ? (e.g. SMS, CBS, MMS, MBMS...)
  • Further investigations are needed.
  • A Liaison Statement has been sent to SA1/SA2, asking for clarifications on the 4 s requirement and on the definition of legacy handsets.

 

GERAN / LTE Interworking (1/2)

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  • Usage of "black list" or "white list" for neighbour cells:
            - there was no consensus on the best approach:
- "white list" could be difficult in certain situations due to limitations of broadcast capacity on BCCH;
- "black list" would  mean less O&M burden for operators;
- but "black list" has significant impacts on GERAN networks and terminals (handling of measurement reports).
            - a proposal has been made to consider different approaches for idle mode (black list) and dedicated/packet transfer mode (white list);
              contributions have been invited on the "black list approach".
  • Working assumption taken that GERAN/UTRAN only Rel-8 terminals (not supporting E-UTRAN) shall support the absolute priorities based inter-RAT cell reselection algorithms.
  • Working assumption taken about the handling of equal priority RATs but LS sent to RAN2 to check they are in line. Working assumption will be reconsidered in case RAN2 disagree.
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 GERAN / LTE Interworking (2/2)

 

 

  • •Fallback to CS domain in E-UTRAN -> GERAN interworking relies on Inter Domain Handover:
– first E-UTRAN -> GERAN PS HO;
– establishment of parallel CS call in GERAN using Dual Transfer Mode;
– Domain Transfer between PS and CS within GERAN.
  • Stage 2 and 3 CRs on the "Inter Domain Handover" have been postponed in Plenary due to missing indicator allowing to know whether the call to be transferred is anchored in the VCC application or not:
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EGPRS2

  • Still a significant number of miscellaneous corrections, mainly in the following areas:

- L1 (EVM, bit swapping, rate matching, puncturing, USF coding...);
- EGPRS2 channel quality reporting;
- multiplexing of EGPRS, EGRPS2-A and EGPRS2-B MSs on the same timeslots.

  • Work will now focus on performance requirements for MSs and BTSs.

Latency Reductions

  • Some correction activity, mainly in the following areas:

    - channel quality reporting on timeslot pairs in RTTI configurations;
    - MS reaction times in RTTI configurations;
    - one-phase access support of LATRED;
    - recovery from undetected PAN errors;
    - update of CSN1 syntax of BTTI/RTTI assignments.
     
  • Work has now started on performance requirements for MSs and BTSs

Location Services (LCS) 

 

  • Miscellaneous corrections on A-GNSS:

    - Correction to GANSS Data Bit Assistance Request;
    - Correction to Data Bits definition for Galileo;
    - Corrections to GANSS Signal ID and ref. measurements;
    - ASN1 syntax and parameter range corrections

Generic Access Network Iu mode
 

  • The stage 3 Rel-8 CR to TS 44.318 introducing GAN Iu mode has been approved.
  • Other topics under discussion:
– benefits of preferred GAN mode indication by the MS:
• MS would indicate whether it prefers to use GAN A/Gb or GAN Iu mode at PLMN selection;
• GERAN2#36bis sent an LS to CT1 to check whether the proposal violates PLMN selection rules or not.
– service based handover in GAN:
• will be investigated further for both GAN Iu mode and GAN A/Gb mode.
– GAN Iu mode security procedures:
• work in progress; once completed, LSs will be sent to RAN2, RAN3, SA3, CT1.

A interface over IP

  • Replie LSs have been received from SA2 and CT4, "positively" acknowledging the Feasibility Study.
  • TR 43.903 has been approved by the Plenary
  • A Work Item has been approved with a planned completion date in November 2008 (TSG GERAN # 40).
  • An LS has been sent to SA2, SA4, CT3, CT4 (cc: SA, CT) so that they can review the TR and take appropriate actions for the completion of this work.

 

Multicarrier BTS

  • The need to revise the Harmonised Standards in ETSI TC MSG (for MCBTS, but for EGPRS2 as well) was highlighted.
  • One proposal for the relaxations is to align the intermodulation and spurious requirements of the MCBTS on UMTS/LTE, based on the fact that in the near future UMTS, LTE and GSM will often operate in the same frequency bands.
  • A more conservative proposal is to relax the intermodulation and spurious requirements by a smaller amount (the amount considered necessary to make the MCBTS technically feasible).
  • A CR to TS 45.005 introducing the multicarrier BTS, based on the conservative approach, has been approved.
  • Work will now focus on the BTS conformance testing specification TS 51.021.
  • Work on MCBTS will proceed during a GERAN1 adhoc beginning of April 2008.

Multi-User Reusing One Slot (MUROS)

  • A set of objectives for MUROS has been discussed and will be included in the corresponding TR.
  • A proposal on how to multiplex 4 users on two HR subchannels with Orthogonal Sub Channels (OSC) allowing to maximize the benefits brought by DTX in terms of inter-user interference reduction was presented.
  • Two proposals with some similarities have been made on how to introduce sub-channel specific power control.
  • A work plan until completion of the Feasibility Study (August 2008) has been proposed.
  • Work on MUROS will proceed in a GERAN1 adhoc meeting beginning of April 2008.

 

Optimized Transmit Pulse Shape for Downlink EGPRS2-B (WIDER)

  • Discussions around possible working assumptions for this work have started.
  • A work plan until completion of the Feasibility Study (August 2008) has been proposed.
  • Work on WIDER will proceed in a GERAN1 adhoc meeting beginning of April 2008.

 

GERAN-WiMAX interworking

  • The document "Resolution on Optimized Handover with Mobile WiMAX" was presented for information and used as a basis for discussion.
  • A proposal for a work item on GERAN-WiMAX interworking backed by 10 co-signing companies, could not be approved due to opposition or reservations expressed by a number of other companies.
  • A draft LS to SA2, RAN, CT, SA was drafted by several companies (both from those supporting and those opposing to the WI) during the week, asking for clarifications from SA2 on terminology and exact scope of the work: even though a clear majority of companies in TSG GERAN was in favour of sending the LS, it could not be approved in the closing plenary because of sustained objection from a single company. The draft LS was rejected.
  • The TSG GERAN Chairman informed TSG SA of this discussion in his report to 3GPP TSG SA.

 

Terminal testing General

  • 3 Work Items have been approved:

- Mobile Station conformance testing of Packet-switched Handover;
- MS conformance testing for the Latency Reductions feature;
- MS conformance testing of Support of Conversational Services in A/Gb mode via the PS domain.
 

  • General areas of work:

- PS handover
- Dual carrier in downlink
- GAN Iu mode
- MS Rx Diversity

Terminal testing - Responsibility of GERAN-LTE inter-RAT test cases

 
  • TSG GERAN3 responded to RAN5 on Proposed Areas of Responsibility for Inter RAT (GERAN-LTE) Test Cases.
  • GERAN3 confirms the proposed procedure by RAN5 with the following addition:

 

Any CR generated by GERAN3 for the LTE - GERAN section should be endorsed in GERAN3 first then forwarded to RAN5 for review and agreement as appropriate for subsequent approval by RAN.
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Terminal testing - TS 51.010 Part 5 - STF 160

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  • 3GPP Funding for 2008

2 man-months allocated for new LTE interRAT TC (HO from GERAN) in TTCN

  • TSG GERAN approved the following:

No more TTCN deliveries in PDF form attached to 51.010-5

Future TSG GERAN Plenary meetings :

TSG GERAN#38 12 – 16 May 2008 Malaga, Spain

TSG GERAN#39 25 – 29 August 2008 Firenze, Italy

TSG GERAN#40 17 – 21 November 2008 Miami, FL, USA, tbc

 

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