Industrial 5G

September 3, 2021

Enhanced support of Industrial IoT in the 5G System (Rel-17)

By Devaki Chandramouli, Work Item Rapporteur

In Release 17, the 5G System expands the support for Time Synchronization and Time Sensitive communications for any application. The 5G System architecture enables any Application Function (AF) - in the same or different trust domain - to provide its requirements for QoS, traffic characteristics for QoS scheduling optimization, time synchronization activation and deactivation.

If the AF is in a different trust domain from the 5G System, then it provides input via exposure framework, NEF API. If the AF is in the same trust domain as the 5G System, then it provides input directly via the Time Sensitive communication Time Synchronization function (TSCTSF).

The Functional Architecture is shown in the figure below:

IMT-2020 towards 'Beyond'

Interview with Sergio Buonomo, Chief, ITU-R Study Groups Department (Article first published in HIGHLIGHTS Issue 02, March 2021).

The ITU-R has recently published their Recommendation ITU-R M.2150 entitled: 'Detailed specifications of the radio interfaces of IMT-2020', listing the specifications that conform with its requirements for 5G operation.

We invited Sergio Buonomo to answer a few questions, intended to help the 3GPP readership to better understand how our own specifications for 5G are connected to the ITU’s IMT-2020 process.

Highlights: Could you sum up the significance of the IMT process and what it means to conform to it?

SB: The ITU-R is responsible for the Radio Regulations, with the latest set being the 2020 version, which is the essential regulatory document for the service allocation of the frequency bands (8.3 kHz - 275 GHz Range). They define the spectrum allocation for all radiocommunication services in the three ITU-R Regions, including the allocation for the mobile service. Also, there are important “footnotes” in there; defining the identification of IMT in frequency bands for specific countries.