Keywords & Acronyms

We have written articles to explain some 3GPP related keywords and acronyms, to give some background material on the topic.

Terms include:

5G-Sytem (Towards IMT-2020)
5G-NR (See also; TR38.912 and the '38. series')
API Framework for 3GPP Northbound APIs
Carrier Aggregation,
Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT - EC-GSM-IoT, LTE-M and NB-IoT)
Conformance Testing (UE),
Control and User Plane Separation of EPC nodes (CUPS)
Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD)
Core Rx Interface Evolution
Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS)
Energy efficiency for 5G
Enhanced multimedia broadcast and multicast system over LTE (eMBMS)
Evolved Packet Core (EPC),
GPRS & EDGE,
HSPA,
IMS,
IMT-2020 (3GPP part)
System support for Industrial IoT (Vertical_LAN)
LTE,
LTE-Advanced,
NAS Protocol,
Network Functions Virtualisation,
Mission Critical,
Rx Interface Evolution,
SCAS security test cases (Slide 32 on)
Small Cells/HetNets,
SON,
Telecom Management
UAS - UAV,
UMTS,
UE Category,
W-CDMA

3GPP Series & technologies

The first two digits of a 3GPP TS or TR number define the spec series; for example LTE radio (E-UTRAN) is defined in the 36 Series.

On this page you can find which technology is [at least partially] aligned with which 3GPP series.

A-Z list of technical terms

The 3GPP Report ‘Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications’ identifies specialist technical terms used;

To ensure that editors use terminology that is consistent across specifications.
To provide a reader with convenient reference for technical terms that are used across multiple documents.

Furthermore, you can check which Spec(s) a term or abbreviation is defined in using ETSI’s TEDDI application. Note that this only shows terms defined in 3GPP TSs and TRs which have already been transposed as ETSI publications.

SC-PTM, an agile broadcast/multicast mechanism

January 28, 2016

By Jeff Gao, Rapporteur for 3GPP Support of single-cell point-to-multipoint transmission in LTE.

Broadcast/Multicast services have been earmarked as a potential area of growth in the future. Single Cell Point To Multiploint (SC-PTM) uses the eMBMS system architecture, providing enhancements in the air interface to improve radio efficiency and to reduce latency. SC-PTM supports broadcast/multicast services over single cell, and the broadcast/multicast area can be dynamically adjusted cell by cell according to user’s distribution.

SC-PTM transfers the broadcast/multicast services using LTE downlink shared channel (i.e. PDSCH), and it is scheduled using a common RNTI (i.e. Group-RNTI) for a group of users. The SC-PTM scheduling is quite agile and radio resources could be dynamically assigned in time and frequency domain by PDCCH based on real time traffic load TTI by TTI.

3GPP Core Rx Interface Evolution

Policy and Charging Control Access for Internet Application Developers

By Xia Haitao and Horst Brinkmann, 3GPP CT3

Policy and charging management allows operators to define the rules for Quality of Service (QoS), network usage and charging control. In the All-IP era it is assumed that web application developers will now work on telecom services in the same way they have been working on computer based services until now. For this purpose, the 3GPP Policy and Charging Control (PCC) system is acting as an entry point for end-to-end service control - based on PCC functionality.

The 3GPP way to fulfil this new demand is to adapt the Diameter based Rx interface to be incorporated in standards and protocols used by Internet application developers. The evolution of the Rx interface will enable them to smoothly access the 3GPP PCC architecture and to use the PCC functionality for the creation of value-added services. The upshot of this is a better business model for the operator, providing the right QoS and charging possibilities for mobile applications.

LTE ue-Category

Last Update August, 2016

Category information is used to allow the eNB to communicate effectively with all the UEs connected to it. The ue-Category defines a combined uplink and downlink capability as specified in 3GPP TS36.306.

DL-SCH = Downlink shared channel
UL-SCH = Uplink shared channel
TTI = Transmission Time Interval

Downlink physical layer parameter values set by the field ue-Category (36.306 table 4.1-1):

UE Category	Maximum number of DL-SCH transport block bits received within a TTI (Note 1)	Maximum number of bits of a DL-SCH transport block received within a TTI	Total number of soft channel bits	Maximum number of supported layers for spatial multiplexing in DL
Category 1	10296	10296	250368	1
Category 2	51024	51024	1237248	2
Category 3	102048	75376	1237248	2
Category 4	150752	75376	1827072	2
Category 5	299552	149776	3667200	4
Category 6	301504	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM)	3654144	2 or 4
Category 7	301504	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM)	3654144	2 or 4
Category 8	2998560	299856	35982720	8
Category 9	452256	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM)	5481216	2 or 4
Category 10	452256	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM)	5481216	2 or 4
Category 11	603008	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 195816 (4 layers, 256QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM) 97896 (2 layers, 256QAM)	7308288	2 or 4
Category 12	603008	149776 (4 layers, 64QAM) 195816 (4 layers, 256QAM) 75376 (2 layers, 64QAM) 97896 (2 layers, 256QAM)	7308288	2 or 4
NOTE 1: In carrier aggregation operation, the DL-SCH processing capability can be shared by the UE with that of MCH received from a serving cell. If the total eNB scheduling for DL-SCH and an MCH in one serving cell at a given TTI is larger than the defined processing capability, the prioritization between DL-SCH and MCH is left up to UE implementation.

Network Functions Virtualisation

3GPP looks to close cooperation with ISG NFV

At the recent SA Plenary (SA#63, Fukuoka, March 2014), a liaison statement was issued, towards the ETSI Industry Specification Group on Network Functions Virtualisation (ISG NFG). This formal communication is the 3GPP mechanism for informing them that the 3GPP Telecom Management working group (SA5) will produce a Study Item on the management of virtualised 3GPP network functions.

SA5 will start work in their next meeting in March 2014. If the study is agreed there, it will be presented for approval at 3GPP TSG-SA#64 in June 2014 and the work (on agreed features) would proceed following that meeting.

3GPP is also considering how the work in ISG NFV might impact 3GPP at the architecture and system level. The SA#64 meeting concluded that a separate 3GPP study item could be considered to address this, referencing those use cases in ETSI ISG NFV that include 3GPP network entities. The liaison statement to ISG NFV commented that potential work on 3GPP functional elements resulting from this study would be addressed from June 2014 onwards.

Heterogeneous Networks in LTE

by Jeanette Wannstrom, masterltefaster.com and Keith Mallinson, WiseHarbor

Effective network planning is essential to cope with the increasing number of mobile broadband data subscribers and bandwidth-intensive services competing for limited radio resources. Operators have met this challenge by increasing capacity with new radio spectrum, adding multi-antenna techniques and implementing more efficient modulation and coding schemes.

However, these measures alone are insufficient in the most crowded environments and at cell edges where performance can significantly degrade. Operators are also adding small cells and tightly-integrating these with their macro networks to spread traffic loads, widely maintain performance and service quality while reusing spectrum most efficiently.