Highlights of TSG#30

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 held in November/December 2005 in St Julian (Malta).

3GPP has four TSGs: CT (Core Networks and Terminals); RAN (Radio Access Network); SA (Services and Systems Aspects) and GERAN (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network). This summary reports on the first three of these, as GERAN meetings take place separately from the other TSGs.

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.

TSG CT (Core Network and Terminals)

The meeting was held in St Julian (Malta), on the 30th November to 2nd December 2005, hosted by the European Friends of 3GPP.

General

CT #30 approved 327 CRs in releases ranging from R99 to Rel-7, which is an average number of CRs in single CT meeting.

As could be expected, a TSG with strong stage 3 bias has been very busy closing the Rel-6 open items at the same time as Rel-7 work is ramping up. The focus of the work is clearly shifting towards Rel-7 and it is expected that the number of Rel-7 CRs will exceed the number of Rel-6 CRs in the next plenary. With the shifting of the UICC related test case specifications from R99 to the latest available full release (Rel-6) it is expected that the number of CRs on old releases should go down substantially.

It should be noted when reading the above figures that the former CN did not handle any UICC or non-IMS MMS specifications, and in all CT meetings up to CT #30 the majority of R99 CRs have been UICC TC related. So the figures do actually not indicate any substantial growth in the R99 activity, but wider scope in CT compared to the former CN and different test case specification process.

Rel-6 is stabilising and the number of CRs is less than before, but correction CRs are still expected.

Several references to IETF drafts are still remaining and these may create some scope for further essential corrections, depending on what solutions are agreed in IETF.

Some of the non-IMS MMS CRs were prepared by OMA MMSG based on the agreement of allowing the MMSG experts to review the CRs in their area.

NGN stage 3 TR 24.819 was approved. The intention is not to maintain that TR any more, as the applicable parts of the contents were already shifted to normative TSs by CRs that were approved in the same meeting.

CSI TR 24.879 and SS7 gateway architecture TR 29.800 were both provided for information and noted.

Based on the liaison from TISPAN the MCC was requested to create Rel-7 versions of all CT specifications that TISPAN are referencing for their NGN work.

The maintenance of TS 43.019 (SIM API for Java card) will stop in Rel-5.Rel-6 version is withdrawn.

The handling of IOI is an outstanding Rel-6 IMS issue as the related CRs were forwarded back to WG. A liaison was sent to SA5 SWG B to ask for guidance to solve the matter in future CT WG meetings.

3GPP role in IOT has been debated at length, also affecting CT, and a joint meeting on the 8^th of December 2006 solves the problem at least for CT part, as the delegations supporting IOT were requested to seek some other forum for IOT activity.

To cope with the high Rel-7 workload CT1 has scheduled an additional meeting for this plenary period. The meeting will be held on the 17 – 19 of January in Budapest.

PLMN selection meeting has been agreed to develop the contents of TR 22.811 into CRs on the existing normative specifications and even though the TR and the related TS are under SA1 control, also CT1 experts are invited to the workshop on the 24 – 25 Jan 2006.

Technically not related with the above, but partly involving the same people, another workshop on eCall will be organised in the same location on the 26^th of January.

Liaisons Statements

Several LSs were exchanged, but two of them are more critical than the others due to outstanding CT work.

A liaison was sent to SA5 SWG B to ask their help to solve the open IMS issue in Rel-6 IOI (Inter Operator Identifier) handling. It is hoped that SA5 can clarify the stage 2 requirements in the AS area.

CT agreed with GSMA that MMS hubbing was a Rel-6 issue and therefore CT1 and OMA MMS group were requested to draft the necessary CRs for the next plenary meeting.

Active Work Items by Release

R99

- A correction to the indication of ME 8-PSK capability was requested by GERAN in their LS. The CR was revised by CT1 and approved in CT plenary.

Rel-4

Rel-6

- IMS phase 2, IOI still remains an open item (CT1 to solve it together with SA5)

Rel-7

Revised Work Items

- WID for Stage 3 Specification of Combining CS and IMS services & Capability Detection and Exchange Mechanism

- WID on Enhancements of VGCS in public networks for communication of public authority officials

New Work Items

Additionally to these a WID on Multimedia telephony capabilities for IMS was approved conditionally due to dependency of a foreseen SA work item. The corresponding parent work item was however not approved in the SA, so also this conditionally approved WID was forwarded back to the WGs for further review. It is expected that the WGs will revise and re-submit the WID to the next plenaries.

TSG-RAN (Radio Access Network)

The meeting was held in St Julian (Malta), on the 29th November to 2nd December 2005, hosted by the European Friends of 3GPP.

TSG RAN meeting #30 took place in Saint Julian, Malta. The meeting started at 9:00 on Wednesday 30^th November and finished on Friday 2^nd December at 14.45. There was a joint session with TSG SA WG2 on Long Term Evolution – System Architecture Evolution on Thursday 1^st afternoon. 152 participants were registered and 262 documents were submitted.

Change Requests

The approved Change Requests (CRs) to TSG RAN specifications are summarized in the following table:

Release	WG1	WG2	WG3	WG4	WG5	TSG RAN	Total
Release 99		2 (2)					2 (2)
Rel-4 CRs (Rel-4 excluding Cat A)		2 (2)	1 (1)	2 (2)			5 (5)
Rel-5 CRs (Rel-5 excluding Cat A)	2	11 (11)	1 (0)	7 (5)	97 (97)		118 (115)
Rel-6 CRs (Rel-6 excluding Cat A)	8	80 (73)	50 (49)	33 (27)	159 (159)		330 (314)
Rel-7 CRs (Rel-7 excluding Cat A)			12 (7)	47 (23)		1 (1)	60 (31)
Total CRs (Total excluding Cat A)	10	95 (88)	64	89 (57)	256 (256)	1 (1)	515 (467)

ITU-R Issues

A LS was received from ITU-R WP8F to inform that it will not produce Revision 7 of M.1457 in 2007 due to the workload produced by the preparations for WRC 2007 (RP-050857)

A request for information was received from WP8A concerning description of 3GPP Technologies that could be used for Broadband Wireless. TSG RAN agreed to collaborate on this activity and a first response was produced (RP-050850), a more detailed contribution will be produced for the next WP8A meeting.

A preliminary response to ITU-R WP8F on PDNR ITU-R M.[IP CHAR] (IP applications) is was agreed, to be presented in TSG SA and later approved by 3GPP PCG (RP-050816)

Rel99, Rel-4, Rel-5 and Rel-6

Very few corrections to R99 and Rel-4 specifications. Most of the Rel-5 CRs are for the test specifications in WG5.

A technically endorsed CR on 25.331 Rel-6 for the introduction of a new EDCH measurement reporting event was presented (RP-050794). It is to be used for cell selection for the active set in the Node B. It was argued that this objective can be achieved with existing network measurements. The CR wasn't approved, and WG2 was asked to assess its justification in the light of possible alternatives based on existing functionality.

It was noted that no work has been done for some time in the tests for HSDPA for TDD. This triggered a debate that concluded that a feature that lack tests would be considered for removal of the core specification. WG5 was asked to produce a list of features that are note tested

Release 7 Work Items

The Work Item UMTS2600 TDD was completed and closed. The CRs were approved. TR 25.811, UMTS 2.6 GHz TDD Technical Report, was approved and put under change control as v7.0.0.

Only the issue of additional requirement for spurious emissions for the UE is pending for the Work Item UMTS900. It was agreed to close the WI, the bulk of the CRs were approved. TR 25.816, UMTS 900 MHz Work Item Technical Report, was approved and put under change control as v7.0.0.

The Work Item UMTS1700 was completed and closed. The CRs were approved. TR25.817, UMTS1700, was approved and put under change control as v7.0.0

The Work Item MBMS performance requirements was completed and closed. The CRs were approved

The scope of the WI Improved Performance Requirements for non-HSDPA channels based on Enhanced Receiver, Type 1 was discussed (RP-050666). Some companies believed that it should cover only a limited number of DCH cases, and others wanted it to extend to common channels (supporting MBMS in particular) and to Fractional-DPCH. There was no agreement on this; and a proposal for a set of new WIs for additional UE performance requirements for E-DCH related and MBMS related DL channels was presented. It was forwarded to WG4 for evaluation due to the lack of time

The WI Improved support of IMS Real time Services using HSDPA/EDCH was closed. The open issues were moved under the scope of the WI Continuous connectivity for packet data users, whose WIDS was revised (RP-050870), and a new WI was presented to cover the gaming aspects (RP-050871)

The completion of the WI Optimisation of channelisation code utilisation for 1.28 Mcps TDD is delayed to March 06 due to the unavailability of Rel-7 specifications in WG1, WG2 & WG3.

MIMO for WCDMA was extensively debated. WG1 had been tasked to study the gains of the technology, but the simulations presented there didn't allow to reach a conclusion (RP-050759). The agreement in TSG RAN was to continue analysis, with a very well defined micro urban scenario, and to take the final decision in June 06 (RP-050884).

The WI Testing of Domain Specific Access Control was completed and closed. The CRs were approved.

WG4 informed that the work under the Feasibility Study on Performance Evaluation of the UE behaviour in high speed trains with speeds up to 350 km/h was completed and proposed to close the Study. Several companies argued that the WG2 and WG3 aspects hadn't been considered, and proposed to keep the study open for these. This was agreed.

Long Term Evolution

Upon reception of the conclusions from WG1, the decisions taken for the working assumptions can be briefly summarized as follows: OFDMA as the downlink multiple access technique and SC-FDMA as the uplink multiple access technique (RP-050758, RP-050879).

No conclusion had been reached in WG1 on the support for macro-diversity for the LTE. A show of hands took place, with a clear majority against including inter-NodeB macro-diversity as a working assumption.

A proposal was presented to add the 1.6 MHz bandwidth to the Requirements TR, for compatibility with Low Chip Rate deployments. It was agreed to have it for TDD, but there were opposed views on its applicability to FDD. The introduction in the TR is postponed until this point can be solved (RP-050834)

The joint session with SA WG2 revised the views on mobility, architecture, QoS, security and others. The work split was also revised, and as a result the Work Plans of LTE in RAN and SAE in SA WG2 were revised.

A joint RAN WG2, WG3 & SA WG3 meeting will take place in January to decide on which security functions cannot be allocated to the NodeB and, if possible, to take decisions on where security functions are allocated (RP-050904)

New Work Items / Study Items

- UE Conformance Test for UMTS in 900 MHz band (band VIII) (testing) (RP-050723)

TSG-SA (Service and System Aspects)

The meeting was held in St Julian (Malta), on the 5th December to 7th December 2005, hosted by the European Friends of 3GPP.

Summary of Major Decisions

For Rel-6 we continued to tie up loose ends. The final Rel 6 TR was approved (Performance characterization of 3GPP audio codecs, SA4, SP-050807). The number of Rel 6 CRs is still fairly high but is decreasing, indicating Rel 6 is stabilizing. One controversial issue concerned charging for SCUDIF. A requirement permitting various charging options was agreed (SP-050808), however if support of the ability to indicate the nature of the service charge (bullet 3) cannot be achieved by SA#31, this last bullet should be removed.

In Rel-7 we are progressing from the service definition to the architectural phase of the work. The Rel 7 stage 1 work is now considered stable except for a few granted exceptions. The exceptions are IMS service brokering, eCall requirements, network selection principles, videotelephony teleservice, multimedia telephony, and personal network management. The stage 2 work is now targeted to be stable by June 2006.

TRs were approved on the Study of Videotelephony Service (SA1, SP-050757), Review of Network Selection Principles (SA1, SP-050758), and Behaviour of Multi-System Terminals (SA1, SP-050759), Voice Call Continuity between CS and IMS (SA2, SP-050675), and Early implementation of HTTPS connection between UICC and a NAF (SA3, SP-050770).

A network selection principles workshop is planned for January 24-25 in Amsterdam to decide next steps in this area (SP-050837). In addition, MSG has called for a workshop on eCall (January 23 in Amsterdam) to address how to progress this work. 3GPP members are encouraged to participate in this workshop.

New work items were approved for IMS Service Brokering Enhancements (SA1, SP-050830), Key Establishment Between a UICC and a Terminal (SA3, SP-050836), MBMS User Service Extensions (SA4, SP_050838), HSDPA Performance Measurements (SA5, SP-050728), Repeater NRM Definition (SA5, SP-050731), and UTRAN radio channel power monitoring (SA5, SP-050733). The work items for Support of SMS and MMS over IP networks (SA2, SP-050681) and Interworking Enhancements to support QoS provisioning over 3GPP/WLAN Interworking (SA2, SP-050682) were updated with new target dates.

New study items were approved on Network Composition (SA1, SP-050831) and the study of Terminating Session Handling (SA2, SP-050811). The Multimedia Priority Service study item (SA1, SP-050755) was updated with revised target dates.

The stage 1 TS for the All IP Network (AIPN) was approved (SA1, SP-050740) and work continues on System Architecture Evolution (SAE) and Long Term Evolution (LTE). TSG-SA endorsed the SAE workplan and objectives for upcoming meetings that were generated out of the joint SA2, RAN meetings (SP-050835, SP-050658). The LTE workplan was also endorsed (SP-050817).

SA was informed of discussion ongoing on revising the IPR policies within ETSI with the goal of applying these policies to the results of the SAE and LTE work. 3GPP noted these discussions. Since any direction on changes to IPR policies must come from the PCG/OP, no action was taken.

A presentation was made by Cablelabs indicating their interest in using IMS in their packetcable solutions. It was agreed that this work could be handled under the FBI work item but it is not permitted to destabilize work already done for TISPAN. In expectation that TISPAN would complete its NGN release 1, several CRs to support TISPAN use of IMS were approved and several specifications were raised to Rel 7 level. Alain Sultain (MCC) was appointed as the coordinator towards TISPAN. LS's were sent to TISPAN informing them of 3GPP actions and concerns (SP-050839) and asking them to develop an exception mechanism for TISPAN Rel 1 (SP-050834).

GERAN raised a concern about a mismatch between conformance testing and core specifications for the support of A5/2. A5/2 has been compromised and should not be supported in new terminals. It was agreed that tests for A5/2 should be removed. Furthermore, the core specifications for R99, R4, and R5 should be updated to indicate that support of A5/2 is strongly discouraged for terminals manufactured after July 1, 2006. A5/2 is already prohibited in the core specs for R6 and later.

In order to allow additional opportunities for offline discussion and ensure that there is adequate time for debate it was agreed to extend the TSG-SA meetings to 3.5 days. It was also agreed that TSG-SA will continue to operate without pdf files.

Another year has come and gone and it has been a productive year. The number of GSM subscribers has passed 1.5 billion, We are seeing widespread deployments of 3G and HSDPA is being rolled out. IMS has become the key building block of NGN.

2006 promises to be a busy year as well with the completion of Rel-7 as well as work on SAE and LTE on our plates.

	CN #27	CT #28	CT #29	CT #30
R99	1	19	21	13
Rel-4	12	21	9	15
Rel-5	46	59	58	45
Rel-6	220	235	208	155
Rel-7	1	26	72	99

TSG#30 Highlights

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