January 24, 2018

By Giovanni Romano, 3GPP ITU-R Ad Hoc group coordinator, TIM

Following the ITU-R Workshop on IMT-2020 terrestrial radio interfaces, in October 2017, 3GPP groups are now working on IMT-2020, with an initial description of the 3GPP 5G solution - based on the First 5G NR specifications approved in December - sent over to the ITU in accordance with the IMT-2020 submission and evaluation process.

The editors of the Initial “Description template of 3GPP 5G candidate for inclusion in IMT-2020”: (Wu Yong, Huawei and Asbjorn Grovlen, Ericsson) have provided a summary of the technical characteristics of the 3GPP 5G solution:

This summary is not complete and final, but it already provides a good overview of the contents of 3GPP Release 15, December version, and most importantly will allow ITU-R and Independent Evaluation Groups to better understand the technology and to start their ITU-R evaluation process.

This document is the first of three planned steps spanning two releases from 3GPP, following the decision to submit preliminary descriptions of the solution only when milestones of high relevance are achieved:

• Release 15 December 2017 version;
• Release 15 June 2018 version and
• Release 16

The final and fully comprehensive 3GPP IMT-2020 submission (encompassing both Release 15 and Release 16) is planned for July 2019. To help the Evaluation Groups in their work, 3GPP is currently planning a workshop to present the 5G solutions to interested external bodies – specifically the Evaluation Groups – to allow a better understanding of the 3GPP technologies for 5G. More news will follow soon – on the date and place of the 3GPP Workshop.