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As the year of 2024 is coming close to an end, it is time to take an overall look at where TSG RAN stands and how it is planning for the next releases - particularly related to 6G. TSG RAN is currently working on Release 19 (Rel-19) projects, the 2nd release of 5G-Advanced and also the last release fully dedicated to 5G. As illustrated in Figure 1, the start of Rel-19 is in the 1st quarter of 2024 in Working Group (WG) RAN1, with a one-quarter staggered start in WGs RAN2/3/4.
Though the 5GS supports Edge computing since day one of Release 15, 3GPP provides Edge computing (EC) specific enhancements from Release 17 onwards. In addition, Release 18 - the first release of 5G-Advanced (5GA) - brings roaming improvements to support access to the edge home environment (EHE) in a visited PLMN.
3GPP has just selected Indirect Network Sharing (INS) as the next evolutionary step for 5G-Advanced Rel-20, at the recent Melbourne TSG SA plenary (TSGs#105). This follows a big year for the technology in 2024, where INS was commercially deployed - as a Rel-19 technology.
Rel-18 new management features can be classified according to the following four aspects: Management support of new network features Autonomous network management Management support to new services Charging management + Management support of new network features: The management support to new network features in multi-vendor scenario includes network configuration and data collection from the network.
The 5G-Standalone (5G SA) roaming security, as specified by SA3, marks a substantial enhancement over the roaming mechanisms of previous generations. This is because it aims to address the root cause of a wide range of attacks that have taken and continue to take place over the roaming infrastructure in the past decades: