V2X Plugtests cover 3GPP Specs

October 16, 2019

A variety of traffic scenarios will be used during the 1st C-V2X Plugtests™ to ensure that devices can work together and provide the functionalities specified in the 3GPP and ETSI standards.

The launch site for the event at www.etsi.org/events/1659-cv2x-plugtests lists these topics: Signalization of road hazards, Traffic violation monitoring and Collision warnings – as initial candidates for the tests, in both lab and field environments at the Dekra test facilities in Malaga, Spain.

The 3GPP test cases will be drawn from LTE_V2X features, described in these Rel-14 & Rel-15 specifications:

5G Systems Development and Deployment

October 8, 2019

In his recent book, 5G NR: Architecture, Technology, Implementation, and Operation of 3GPP New Radio Standards, Sassan Ahmadi, a regular TSG RAN and RAN Working Group delegate, provides a detailed explanation of how the 5G new radio access and core networks are being implemented and deployed. The following article is an introduction to the book, providing a high-level view on 5G systems design, implementation and deployment.

By Dr. Sassan Ahmadi, Xilinx Director and Lecturer at Stanford University

The substantial growth in the number and variety of connected devices and the increase in user/network traffic, as well as the performance limitations of 4G technologies, have motivated industry efforts toward the deployment of 5G mobile networks. Network operators are gearing up toward meeting the dramatic increase in capacity by a combination of; new spectrum utilization, spectral efficiency improvements and ultra-dense network deployments. The 5G system includes intrinsic flexibility and configurability to optimize the network for a wide range of use cases and business models.

The high-throughput mobile broadband use case is primarily based on the evolution and enhancement of LTE technology which facilitates coexistence with the existing radio access networks. However, this legacy support is limited to sub-6 GHz spectrum. All deployments above 6 GHz must use new baseband and radio technologies that improve spectral efficiency, throughput, latency, and other key performance metrics. The 5G mission-critical MTC (low latency and high reliability) and massive-MTC (low energy, low cost, dense coverage) are new use cases that may not rely on legacy support or backward compatibility.

First newcomers session at TSG#85... more to follow

September 18, 2019

To address the questions that newcomers to 3GPP dare not ask, the 3GPP TSG Chairs have initiated a breakfast time session – held during the Plenary week – where the leaders take new attendees through material on what 3GPP is doing and how it is done. The first 'Newcomer’s orientation session’ was well attended and should be repeated at future TSG meetings.

A few issues came to light in the session, related to the challenges encountered getting a technical proposal through the groups, how the coordination between SA and RAN is organized, on how challenging the 3GPP environment can be for new comers – as well as practical questions on the portal, web site use and meeting registration.

Lifetime achievement award to RAN3 role model

September 14, 2019

The 105th RAN3 meeting in Ljubljana was an important milestone for one of the long-time RAN3 delegates and the whole group, as it marked the last RAN3 meeting for Martin Israelsson, after 20 years of involvement in the group - in a multitude of roles and positions.

Martin is one of the pillars of 3GPP RAN3, ever present since December 1999, as well as being active in the 3GPP RAN Plenary. He has served as RAN3 Chairman from 2001 to 2003, and as RAN3 Vice-Chairman from 2009 to 2017. Martin’s role has been crucial in fostering a cooperative climate through technically solid discussion and, when required, historically accurate explanations of what led to a certain technical decision.