5G is a trending topic nowadays in different forums and
seminars. Let us see what are the different standard bodies working on the
international arena, the regional groupings and where do we sit from a
developing country perspective? Based on my understanding, I cover in this post
some of the major standardization organizations and what they hope to achieve in
the area of 5G. I start with the
international organizations and then come to regional bodies.
International
Organizations
ITU-T: www.itu.int
The United Nations specialized agency for information and
communication technologies- ITU has finalised the “Vision” for 5G in 2015.
Continuing the journey of previous frameworks for IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced for
3G and 4G, the expectation is to freeze the IMT-2020 for 5G with detailed
specifications for new radio interfaces. (IMT stands for “International Mobile
Telecommunications). If we go back to IMT Advanced, ITU had confirmed IMT
Advanced status to 3GPP LTE Advanced and WirelessMAN Advanced as the
technologies for 4G and it will be done similarly for 5G.
3GPP: www.3gpp.org/
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines
technologies with their specifications from the 3GPP family of standards. 3GPP
has published specifications for 3G, LTE, LTE Advanced including GSM (GPRS
&EDGE). It has got representations from telecommunications Standard Development Organizations (SDOs) from different regions. Different releases are
generated each showing advances and improved functionalities. Release 15 is
slated to be the first set of specifications for the new generation of 5G.
Starting from 2015, 3GPP started working on 5G, with the objective of
submitting a candidate technology to the IMT-2020 from ITU. 3GPP believes there are two areas
from the radio point of view- a. Requirements of IMT 2020 that might include
LTE and b. Scope & requirements of new radio system beyond LTE.
NGMN: www.ngmn.org
Founded by the leading international mobile network operators in 2006, Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) provides inputs to other standard bodies like ITU and 3GPP on 5G. For 5G it is of the view that there are 5 use cases namely -mobile broadband, mission critical communications, massive Internet of Things (IoT), broadcast- like services, and higher user mobility as the next generation 5G will be more than new radio interfaces but will encompass an end-to-end system that includes all aspects of the network. The organizational focus is to ensure that operators need and requirements are taken into consideration while working out new standards and technologies such as 5G.
Founded by the leading international mobile network operators in 2006, Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) provides inputs to other standard bodies like ITU and 3GPP on 5G. For 5G it is of the view that there are 5 use cases namely -mobile broadband, mission critical communications, massive Internet of Things (IoT), broadcast- like services, and higher user mobility as the next generation 5G will be more than new radio interfaces but will encompass an end-to-end system that includes all aspects of the network. The organizational focus is to ensure that operators need and requirements are taken into consideration while working out new standards and technologies such as 5G.
IEEE: http://5g.ieee.org/
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an association of professionals started with electricity and then incorporated Electronics and IT along the path among other fields. It has published several well-known standards such as 802 family for wireless standards, LAN, MAN etc. Wi-Fi which we use so frequently nowadays has been standardized by IEEE. In the area of 5G, special interest groups (SIGs) to work on specific areas like mmWave, end-to-end security, edge cloud, resilience, end-to-end latency, mobility, network architecture, gigabit service enablement, and sensing is planned. These SIGs will work on various aspects such as publications, education, training, conferences, federated testbeds, and standards.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an association of professionals started with electricity and then incorporated Electronics and IT along the path among other fields. It has published several well-known standards such as 802 family for wireless standards, LAN, MAN etc. Wi-Fi which we use so frequently nowadays has been standardized by IEEE. In the area of 5G, special interest groups (SIGs) to work on specific areas like mmWave, end-to-end security, edge cloud, resilience, end-to-end latency, mobility, network architecture, gigabit service enablement, and sensing is planned. These SIGs will work on various aspects such as publications, education, training, conferences, federated testbeds, and standards.
GSMA : www.gsma.com/
Having the interests of operators worldwide with more than
800 members, GSMA is looking into the roaming and interconnection for 5G,
suitable spectrum bands and use cases/applications and also give inputs to the
standard bodies. How 5G will impact the
economics and technicalities is the focus of interest. GSMA is of the view that
currently two perspectives exist on 5G. The first is of a “hyper-connected”
world, where 5G is a blend of existing technologies like 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi etc.
These together can deliver among other
things much greater coverage and availability, higher network density and
provide the connectivity for M2M and IoT. The second is that 5G is a totally
new next-generation radio access technology.
Regional
Initiatives
5GPPP (5th Generation Public Private Partnership) https://5g-ppp.eu/
5G PPP has been initiated by the EU Commission and industry
manufacturers, telecommunications operators, service providers, SMEs and
researchers to further enhance Europe’s leadership. This initiative aims to
have European industry driving the 5G standards and to develop and exploit at
least 20% of the 5G SEP (Standards Essential Patents). It is a 1.4 Billion Euro
initiative.
5G Americas http://www.5gamericas.org/
5G Americas aims to be the “Voice of 5G for Americas”. This
grouping which came into being as “3G Americas” morphed into “4G Americas” for
4G has now taken up a new avatar in the form of “5G Americas”. It aims to
recommend standards for 5G as well as for LTE, LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced
Pro.
5GMF (5th Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum) http://5gmf.jp/en/
The Japanese Initiative for 5G aims to conduct research &
development concerning Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Systems for standardization
among other objectives. It aims for early realization of 5G.
IMT-2020 (5G)
Promotion Group http://www.imt-2020.cn/en/
This group aims to promote the research of 5G in China. Some
areas of focus for this forum are to study requirements, 5G framework, network
technology, spectrum, IPR and international cooperation.
5GForum-http://www.5gforum.org/
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and Mobile Industries in South Korea founded the 5G Forum in 2013. By 2020, the government intends to deploy 5G mobile
technology for the first time in the world featuring core 5G services during
the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in South Korea and this forum will help
drive the initiatives in that direction.
In this high technology game, it would be of vital and
strategic importance to these countries as it can have implications
for their GDPs and growth. If we look at the origin of these bodies
they all emanate from the countries/regions from where the Standards Developing
Organizations (SDOs) contributing to 3GPP come from. Each regional grouping aims to
maintain the lead in the development of 5G in the area of advanced technologies
and reap the maximum benefit for their industries based in those areas. There
will be tough fights and in the ensuing battles, each group will try to
extract the most for themselves and their stakeholders.
