Later than in previous years, during the May 2025 Working Group meetings, the four Excellence awards for 2024 have been presented. Congratulations to Ruixin Wang (RAN4), Abdessamad El Moatamid (CT3), Ulrich Wiehe (CT4) and Rajavelsamy Rajadurai (SA3) for a great year of professional achievement in their respective groups.

Working Group RAN4 – Ruixin Wang , Vivo

Ruixin has been recognised as a leading expert on UE radiated performance and OTA testing. His efforts in 2024, on the development and finalization of the 5G TRP/TRS OTA requirements (TR38.870, TS 38.161), were an important achievement for the group.

“He is Rapporteur of multiple OTA projects and has put enormous amount of work to ensure that the OTA discussion and worldwide measurement activities are well organized and of high quality. This award recognises his technical expertise, as well as his coordination and outstanding contributions to OTA specification work of 3GPP.” Said Xizeng Dai, WG RAN4 Chair.

Working Group CT3 - Abdessamad El Moatamid, Huawei

Abdessamad has been leading the work done on 3GPP Network Capability Exposure frameworks and APIs.

Thanks to these efforts, frameworks such as CAPIF and SEAL are being explored and adopted as core functionalities in the wider industry. He is also a main contributor on multiple areas related to network slicing, network policy control, Uncrewed Aerial Systems and Authentication & Key Management for Applications (AKMA).

“Your contributions to the CT3 group for all aspects, particularly as Rapporteur on work items specifying 3GPP network capability exposure frameworks (including  SCEF/NEF northbound, CAPIF, SEAL, EDGEAPP, etc.), and your role in pushing forward the adoption of 3GPP-defined frameworks in ETSI ISG MEC, CAMARA / GSMA OpenGW  to the industrial ecosystem - have made you a fine choice for this year’s Award.” said CT3 Chair, Yali Yan.

Working Group CT4 - Ulrich Wiehe, Nokia

As Rapporteur of the Rel-18 NRF API enhancements to avoid signalling and storing of redundant data (NRFe) and as an active contributor to SBI Protocol enhancements, Reducing Information Exposure over SBI, 5G Timing Resiliency and TSC&URLLC enhancements, CT aspects of Edge Computing (Ph2) and Generic group management, exposure and communication enhancements - Ulrich is a key expert in CT4 with in-depth knowledge on UDM/UDR/AUSF/HSS NFs, 5GC SBIs design, Diameter, MAP and IMS interfaces.

CT4 Chair Yue Song said the timing is right this year: “Ulrich Wiehe is the Rapporteur of sixty-nine CT4 specifications, including TS 29.501 (Principles & Guidelines for 5GC APIs design), TS 29.503 (UDM APIs), TS 23.682 (UDM-HSS interworking), 29.328/329 (Sh interface). All this and the completion - over fifteen months - of NRFe in Rel-18 is worthy of this award.”

Working Group SA3 - Rajavelsamy Rajadurai, Samsung

Rajavelsamy is Rapporteur of multiple WIDS/SIDs, including Security aspects of NR mobility enhancement (Ph. 4), Subsequent Conditional PSCell Addition or Change, Service Enabler Architecture Layer (SEAL), Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), Security Assurance Specification (SCAS); User Plane Function (UPF),  Common API Framework (CAPIF) and Machine-Type Communications (MTC).

WG SA3 Chair, Suresh Nair said : “You have worked so consistently, paying attention to minute details and bringing together all the stakeholders. Your technical knowledge and ability to bring about consensus on features such as SCPAC, IAB, Edge Computing, MBS and CAPIF has again been commendable.”