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in Release 5?|
What's in Release 6?
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Previous Highlights: TSG#15 | TSG#16
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 in March 2003 in Birmingham, UK.
Those
meetings (which attracted some 300 delegates) confirmed that 3GPP remains firmly
on course. As well as updating a number of specifications from earlier Releases,
the meetings moved closer to the freezing of the features for the next release
– Release 6. The long list of features foreseen for Release 6 confirms our
belief that there remains a lot of work for 3GPP to do. And on the same
occasion, the ad hoc group looking at the long term evolution of 3G also
identified key areas of development for the coming years. A Technical Report
from the ad hoc group,providing a "road map" for this evolution is
expected later this year.
3GPP
has five TSGs: CN (Core Network); RAN (Radio Access Network); T (Terminals); SA
(Services and Systems Aspects); and GERAN (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network). This
summary reports on the first four of these, as GERAN meetings take place
separately from the other TSGs. GERAN information will be added shortly.
Please
note, these summaries to 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.
Well,
within 3GPP, a Release is a full set of technical specifications (and supporting
documents) that define a mobile system. A mobile system can be constructed based
on the set of all specifications that comprise a given Release. And a specific
Release differs from the previous Release by having added functionality
introduced as a result of ongoing standardization work.
In
order to permit an effective project management of the work, the task is made up
of Work Items, each usually resulting in a specification or some other document.
Three levels of Work Items are recognised. The top level is a Feature: each
feature can be considered as an optional extra, which can be added or not to a
system as a function of market demand. Normally a feature embodies an improved
service to the customer and/or increased revenue generation potential to the
supplier.
The
next level of Work Item a Building Block, several of which make up a Feature.
Building Blocks are composed of the lowest level, Work Tasks. TSG Highlights
will mostly just refer to Features.
Release
'99 was frozen at the end of 1999, Release 4 was frozen in March 2000, and
Release 5 is "functionally frozen" (i.e. the functionality defined by
the specifications included in this Release is frozen) during the first half of
2002. Release 6 is expected to be functionally frozen around the end of this
year.
Like
the previous Releases, there are several hundred specifications in Release 5, so
it's impossible to give a concise answer here. The best thing to do is to take a
look at specification 21.103
v5.3.0 (or later) or, if you want more complete detail, the current 3GPP
workplan: http://www.3gpp.org/Management/WorkPlan.htm
Several features have already been identified for inclusion in Release 6, which is currently scheduled for mid-2003, and there are even some thoughts for beyond Release 6. The workplan and specification 21.104 (when it becomes available) will provide you with the details.
At its recent meeting in March 2003 in Birmingham, TSG-T has
been working on the maintenance of the existing Releases, and has continued work
on Release 6. Work on testing always follows the main specification task, and
this is so for User Equipment (UE) testing, which is ongoing for Release '99,
Release 4, and for Release 5 (see the "Testing" section below).
The TSG-T leadership team was re-elected for another 2 years term (Chairman
Dr. Sang-Keun Park from Samsung Electronics (TTA), Vice-Chairmen Ed Ehrlich,
Nokia (T1) and Kevin Holley, mmO2 (ETSI).
Maintenance work was performed on the existing Releases of MMS specifications
and the scope of the Release 6 work item for Multimedia Message Service (MMS)
enhancements was further discussed. MMS Release 6 will add new functionality to
the existing MMS standard in several areas which will further enhance the user
experience of this rich messaging service. TSG-T’s Working Group 2 (T2) was
asked to refine the scope for MMS Release 6 to get a more detailed view on the
planned enhancements. A discussion took also place about harmonisation of MMS
standard between 3GPP and 3GPP2. This topic will be further discussed in future
with the aim to avoid interoperability problems across network boundaries.
The work on Generic User Profile (GUP) is progressing. GUP will provide easy
access and sharing of end-user profile data, including data about the user's
devices, services enabled, billing arrangements, address, calendar and
preferences. This will lead to better service experience for the user.
It was noted that there is a lack of resources and support in TSG-T to
perform all the assigned work on User Equipment Management.
A discussion took place on improving the cooperation with the Open Mobile
Alliance (OMA). TSG-T has some joint working areas with OMA and at the next
meeting the dependencies will be further investigated to see if there is a need
to put additional co-ordination mechanisms in place.
Several changes to existing AT commands were approved to adjust their
functionality to existing needs and to correct some errors. AT commands are used
for example as a means of communication between mobile handsets and PDAs.
A Work Item Description on 2G/3G Java CardTM API based applet inter-working
was approved. In order to proceed with the migration of existing 2G applets on
the UICC, it was identified that both the SIM APIs and UICC/USIM/SIM APIs can be
implemented on the UICC. This solution implies the creation of a Technical
Report that clarifies the behaviour and limitations of the SIM APIs used in 3G
mode, and the API interworking.
Phil Brown (3) has become successor to Bjarke Nielsen (Qualcomm) as TSG-T1
chairman. TSG-T expressed their thanks to the outgoing T1 leadership team, and
to Lidia Salmeron (MCC) who is leaving after working as T1 secretary for four
years.
36 new Radio Resource Management (RRM) Test Cases test cases have been
developed and corrections and updates to existing Test Cases were performed. New
guidelines for implementation of test tolerances were created. Analysis of power
measurement accuracy still requires further study.
The UE Signalling Conformance Specification has been updated in line with Dec
02 core specifications. Redundant RRC reconfiguration and state transition test
cases considered to have no coverage impact have been removed. Test cases for
security and PS NAS have been added. Test method and support DSCH testing have
been added. Test cases for Intra-frequency Measurements TDD have been included.
13 more TTCN test cases are now verified and approved by T1 to Mar 02
baseline. Another 9 expected soon by email approval.
Over 80 TTCN test cases have been verified by Motorola against the Jun 02
baseline. Although these will still need to be reviewed by TSG-T WG1 and
approved by TSG-T, it prepares the way for a smooth transition to update the
test cases against a later version of core specifications in accordance with the
GCF certification criteria.
The TSG-T WG3 work item on "C-language binding for (U)SIM API" was completed. The corresponding test specification TS 34.131 Test Specification for ‘C’-language binding to (U)SIM API was approved. It describes the technical characteristics and methods for testing the SIM API for the C programming language implemented in the subscriber identity modules for GSM and 3G networks.
As usual, a half-day session took place on Monday morning on
Future Evolution: some good progress was made on the Technical Report 21.902 on
"Evolution of 3GPP System". The main achievement is the classification
in "Focus Areas", which will be refined by e-mail. Discussions took
place on what is the accurate timing hidden beyond the terms "medium
term" and "long term", but no consensus was achieved.
Despite the progress made, it will not be possible to conclude the TR by June
2003 as originally planned, so SA#19 allowed extra time and now the TR is due to
be concluded by September this year.
Cooperation with groups outside 3GPP continued to work well on a wide
span of subjects, as:
A proposal to introduce an IPv4-based IMS (IP Multi-media Subsystem)
was considered: the current assumption, decided a year and a half ago, is that
IMS will use exclusively IPv6. The proposer asked SA to check if this assumption
is still valid given the present state of the market for industry wide migration
to IPv6 and given the lack of progress to date within 3GPP regarding the
specification of interworking between IMS and IPv4 based SIP applications. SA
concluded that present work on interworking should be continued and potentially
enforced in particular at SA2 and CN3, and if these groups concluded that
interworking is not reasonably possible with the present assumption on IPv6,
then they should report back to next SA plenary.
On early UE handling (which in short consists of providing information
to the network on the (im)maturity of the UE), a quick decision has now to take
place between a solution relying on a bitmap of UE faults and another one based
on the IMEI Software Version. This decision has to be taken by TSG RAN. RAN
Chairman reported that a vote might have to take place at their next meeting if
no consensus can be reached.
On Extended Tandem Free Operation (eTFO), the advantages of this new
feature are still being debated, in particular compared to what enhancements of
Transcoder Free Operation (TrFO) can offer. There was generally equal support
for and against developing eTFO. The conclusion is that more debates should take
place at SA2 as to try to provide clear guidance at next SA meeting.
On SIM access to IMS, it was concluded that due to security reasons,
this feature would not be added to Release 5. Therefore any Change Requests
(CRs) for SIM access to IMS in Release 5 that have been approved are now
considered as rejected.
The conditions to submit a new candidate for Higher Bit-rate Audio Codec
were clarified: it is not necessary to create a formal Work Item, but the
required detailed information should be provided to SA4 for the evaluation work.
It was clarified that there are various ways of including the Codec
specification in the 3GPP specification set, either by reference, quotation or
production of new draft TSs and TRs in 3GPP. The deadline for submission of new
candidate was set to 31 March 2003.
Considering the overall Work Plan and the global timing, SA examined possible dates for freezing Release 6. A decision about dates around the end of 2003 and early 2004 will be taken at the next meeting on the basis of the progress made in the meantime and of the estimated completion dates from the Working Groups.
3GPP TSG RAN held its 19th meeting in March 2003, in
Birmingham (England). The group dedicated its time to the usual maintenance of
old Releases (Release '99, Release-4 and Release-5) and then to the Work Items
to be incorporated to the forthcoming Release-6. A few new Work Items were
approved also, and the issue of the Handling of Early UEs was discussed at
length.
The maintenance of the old Releases brought some interesting discussions to
the meeting. For example, the Cell Identification requirements in Release '99
are the subject of a lively debate in RAN WG4 and TSG RAN. It has been shown
that the requirements cannot be met in all possible scenarios and for all
required parameter combinations, and discussion is ongoing on how to better
specify those requirements.
RAN WG4 agreed to complete Release-5 High Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA) work at its next meeting. Although HSDPA is a Release-5 feature, WG4
produces performance and RF requirements and tests that cannot be created before
the physical and signalling specifications are stable, hence its work is always
delayed of a few months. TSG RAN endorsed the position of WG4: some companies
questioned if this would mean that essential tests would be left out of
Release-5, but it was clarified that all essential tests have already been
identified and will be incorporated.
The subject of “EarlyUE Handling” is coming to conclusion. The issue was
raised about a year ago, and the work aims at making the Radio Access network
aware if a given UE does not function properly under certain configurations. Two
complementary solutions have are envisaged, Uu based and Iu based.
In the first case, a very short bitstring is transferred from the UE to the
RNC with the first RRC message. This solution will be used when introducing new
mobiles that support a feature while old mobiles do not correctly support it. It
is also better suited to solve early situations during the Radio Interface
connection (e.g. before ciphering).
With the Iu based solution a longer and more detailed bitstring will be sent
from the Core Network to the RNC later than the RRC connection initialization.
It will help in the case that some features do not function properly for a
significant portion of mobiles already in the field.
TSG RAN is currently
discussing the contents of the Iu bitstring. Two options are being considered,
the IMEI-SV of the terminal or a bitmap of identified faults. An Ad Hoc meeting
was held in January to decide on a solution, but the matter was not resolved.
The TSG RAN meeting was also unable to reach a conclusion on this matter, but it
is foreseen that a solution will be adopted at the next meeting (June 2003).
The use of UMTS on additional frequency bands has been one of the hot topics
at this meeting. Approval was given to perform the work necessary to introduce
UMTS Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) in the following new bands:
850 MHz band: 824
– 849 MHz Uplink, 869 – 894 MHz Downlink. To be used in ITU region 2.
800 MHz band:810
– 855 MHz: Uplink, 855 – 900 MHz: Downlink. To be used in Japan.
1.7/2.1 GHz band:
1710 – 1770 MHz: Uplink, 2110 – 2170 MHz: Downlink. To be used in ITU
region 2.
The regions of applications have particular importance, since the
co-existence studies have to consider the different existing technologies in
each region; and also not all the new bands have been allocated for 3G
technologies in all the regions.
The work on the Multiple Input Multiple Output Antennas (MIMO) is
progressing. MIMO will improve system capacity and spectral efficiency by
increasing the data throughput in the downlink. This will be achieved by means
of deploying multiple antennas at both User Equipment (UE) and Node-B (base
station) sides. The channel model has been studied from the perspective of
multiple antennas, and now different proposals for antenna arrangements will be
presented and evaluated. New Work Items have been created to cover the impact on
the physical and upper layers, the modification to the Iub/Iur protocols, and
the changes in RF requirements.
Work for to enable Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services over the radio
access network is reaching cruising speed. RAN WG2 and WG3 held an Ad Hoc
meeting on the subject in January, agreements were reached on the MAC
architecture, UE counting, and the interaction of RRC states and MBMS. The
estimated completion date for the WI is moved to September, to take into
consideration the progress on SA WG2 and CN groups.
Chair elections took place, but since the only candidates were the current
officials, there are no changes in the leadership; Francois Courau (Alcatel) was
re-elected as Chairman, and Donald Zelmer (Cingular) and Eisuke Fukuda (Fujitsu)
were re-elected for the Vice-Chairman positions.
The positions at TSG RAN Working Groups (WG) were also due for renewal by March, so elections were held in the WGs prior to the TSG RAN meeting. No changes were reported for WG2 and WG4: Denis Fauconnier (Nortel) and Howard Benn (Motorola) were respectively re-elected. For WG3 two candidatures were presented for Chairman. A vote took place, as a result of which Alexander Vesely (Siemens) was appointed chairman. WG1 saw its Chairman position change also, Dirk Gestenberger (Ericsson) being appointed as the new Chairman without the need for a vote.
At its recent meeting held in Birmingham U.K in March 2003,
TSG-CN has been working on the improvement and maintenance of past and present
Releases, and has made some major advances in developing new functionality for
3GPP Release 6.
The TSG-CN leadership team was re-elected for another 2 year term (Chairman
Mr. Stephen Hayes of Ericsson (T1), and the two vice chairs Mr Ian Park of
Vodafone (ETSI) and Mr Kunihiko Taya of NEC (TTC))
A major topic of discussion in the meeting was
how to handle implementation errors that have been identified in pre-Release 99
core networks.
Ultimately TSG_CN decided that it was preferable
to document any workarounds as Change Requests (CRs) against the existing
specifications instead of as a specific TR. These CRs are covered under our
current procedures, but must meet the guidelines established for permissible
changes to frozen releases.
In addition a liaison was sent to the GSM
Association (GSMA) TWG urging operators to deploy the network fixes and
requesting information on the gravity and timeline of the problems (NP-030146).
Early feedback from the GSMA TWG indicates that they are urging the operators to
expeditiously deploy the network fixes.
The CN3/CN4 proposal to use a 2 step HLR interrogation procedure for SCUDIF
was challenged on the basis of signalling load and interaction with CAMEL
(NP-030078, NP-030106, NP-030131). The CRs were sent back to CN3 and CN4
for further evaluation, in discussion with CN2.
CN3 has developed the TR 29.962 that investigates the SIP signalling
interworking between IMS network entities behaving as specified in the 3GPP
profile of SIP in TS 24.229, and SIP network entities external to the 3GPP
network, which may not adhere to the 3GPP profile of SIP.
This TR will now be reviewed by CN1 before the final review in CN3 before the
document is SA2 where they will use it as a basis for developing solutions in
the Stage 2 specifications.
CN responded to the ITU-T Special Study Group request for Release 5 Core
network specifications in NP-030150. This will be sent to the Standards
Development Organisations as the basis for their response to the request for
input to Q.1741.3.
Enhanced Dialled Services (NP-030152)
WLAN interworking stage 3 (NP-030116)
Emergency calls over IMS - aligned with SA2 WID and
completing at CN#22 (NP-030149)
Mn (Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) to IMS-MSG) -
completion slipped until CN#22 (NP-030115)
Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) -
completion slipped until CN#22 (NP-030151)
Open Service Access (OSA) Release 6 - aligned with SA1
WID (NP-030036)
TSG_CN has been very pro-active in deleting those areas of work that are not
generating any work. The following WIDs were deleted due to lack of interest
Preferred Framing Protocol
Enhanced Home Environment (HE) control of security (not
actually a WID, but a work task in the project plan)
Ze Stage 3
SA and SA3 were informed of the intention to delete the security work items
mentioned above (NP-030139). There were no objections to deleting the WIDs
from SA. In addition, SA and SA1 were informed by CN5 that several of the
OSA work tasks are in danger of being deleted if no activity occurs by the
CN#20.
All WGs were asked to provide information on any dependencies they have on
work ongoing in OMA or dependencies that OMA has on them (if known). This
will allow project planning with respect to OMA.
Based on the statistics gathered from the CN Working Groups, a reorganization
along IMS/non-IMS lines does not seem to make sense. A date for the
CN2/CN4 merger could not be agreed. The CN2 and CN4 chairs will provide a
proposal at CN#20.
The working methods disallowing "nice-to-have" CRs in Release 5
will be enforced after CN#20. Any non-essential corrections should be agreed
before CN#20.
During the Birmingham meeting, CN delegates
participated in the annual UK charity activity "Comic Relief". With
the "top table" wearing red noses and Comic Relief tee-shirts, and
singing the Beatles' "When I'm 64", £200 was raised. This was kindly
matched by Vodafone, enabling a total of £400 to be given to the charity.