Bringing 5G in to Focus - Services

October 13, 2015

A new white paper from 4G Americas evolves the trade association's thinking on 5G Requirements and Solutions.

The paper considers the pressure to deliver initial features before 2020 and looks at the bigger picture, that allows more "time for technology breakthroughs that
deserve the moniker 5G".

Although bringing a North American perspective, the key use cases and key challenges and requirements covered are Universal.

GCF Certification in sync with 3GPP

September 8, 2015

The latest edition of the GCF Certification News confirms that 60% of current device certification is for LTE systems and establishes the Forum's commitment to ensuring that "the scope of certification remains in sync with the steady stream of enhancements and new features that continue to emerge from 3GPP."

The GCF sees Carrier Aggregation as the focus of much of its work, acknowledging the importance of 3GPP's Band Combination Capability Signaling (BCCS) - which allows a device to advise the network which bands it is capable of supporting.

The GCF has recently approved a Work Item Description to verify Rel-11 BCCS and now also has an umbrella Work Item Description for the certification of Rel-12 devices incorporating LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation with three downlinks. The GCF reports that "So far, 42 inter-frequency combinations have been identified for 3DL Carrier Aggregation."

Security Paper and Workshop Presentations

July 1, 2015

The updated ETSI White paper on "Security for ICT" now includes important new information on the work being done for the "Cyber", "Cloud" and "IoT" security in ETSI groups. The paper also covers 3GPP with dedicated sections on GSM, UMTS & LTE and details of current security aspects of 3GPP work on:

• Machine Type Communications (MTC),
• Public Warning Systems,
• Proximity Services (ProSe) and Group Communication over LTE
• Mission Critical Push To Talk over LTE (MCPTT)
• Spoofed Call Detection and Prevention,
• Security Assurance Specification (SAS) for the MME network product class,
• Subscriber privacy,
• Single Sign On frameworks between 3GPP networks and user-centric Web services.

Although the paper does not cover 5G specifically, it does demonstrate effectively how future systems call for security capabilities beyond what has been previously available and provides a snap shot of what ETSI and 3GPP are doing to meet the challenge.

3GPP video with TCCA leaders

May 19, 2015

A new 3GPP video discusses how LTE is a vital part of the Critical Communications future, but carries a word of warning from Phil Kidner - the CEO of the TCCA - who believes that the 3GPP specifications are yet to meet all of the mission critical requirements, meaning that TETRA is set to be around for a number of years to come.

OMA license granted to 3GPP

March 30, 2015

A copyright agreement is now in place that will allow the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Push-to-Communicate for Public Safety (PCPS) specifications - based on OMA Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC) - to be used in 3GPP specifications for mission-critical Push To Talk (MCPTT).

The agreement, approved by the OMA Board and now out for signature among the 3GPP SDOs, is a vital aid to the progress of the work of 3GPP’s new SA6 working group, allowing them to use PCPS 1.0 texts where needed to complete 3GPP MCPTT without having to ‘re-invent the wheel’.