3GPP
The body which makes and controls the standards for GSM/EDGE/WCDMA/HSPA/LTE is the 3rd Generation Partnership Program or 3GPP. It was set up in 1998 to gain a broader base for 3rd Generation standards built on the very successful GSM standards generated originally within ETSI European Standards Institute SMG (Special Mobiles Group). 3GPP subsequently took over the entire 3GSM suite of standards GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as WCDMA from mid 2000. The main focus of 3GPP’s work today is on 4G LTE though updates to 2G and 3G standards appear in current 3GPP standards releases.
The 3GPP is not a legal entity but is a collaborative activity between the following recognized Standards Development Organizations (SDO):
The 3GPP Organizational Partners can invite a Market Representation Partner to take part in 3GPP. They can be associates to the standards setting. Current Market Representation Partners are:
- IP Multimedia System Forum IMS Forum
- TD-Forum (China)
- Global Mobile Suppliers Association GSA
- GSM Association
- IPV6 Forum
- UMTS Forum
- 4G Americas
- TD SCDMA Industry Alliance (China)
- InfoCommunication Union (Russian Operators)
- Small Cell Forum (formerly Femto Forum)
- CDMA Development Group CDG
- Cellular Operators Association of India COAI
- Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance NGMN Alliance
3GPP functions through four Technical Specification Groups TSG’s:
- Radio Access Networks RAN
- Service and Systems Aspects SA
- Core Networks and Terminals CT
- GSM/EDGE RAN GERAN.
The main work is done by working groups with their recommendations discussed and approved by their managing TSG. TSG’s normally meet four times a year. 3GPP works on a number of Releases in parallel which complicates but overall speeds up the standards process. More details about the 3GPP standards process are here.
GSM/EDGE/WCDMA/HSPA/LTE/5G 3GPP Standards Releases
Following is the list of all standards releases covering the GSM evolution. Note the reference to UMTS which is Universal Mobile Telephone System at term coined by the UN’s International Telecommunications Union ITU and now is an umbrella term referring to the 3GPP 3G technologies WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA+.
There is a useful timeline of GSM from 1982 on the GSM Association GSMA’s website here. The GSMA is the industry body which represents 800 GSM family operators and 200 suppliers to the ecosystem in 220 countries.
| 3GPP RELEASE | RELEASE DATE | DETAILS |
| Phase 1 | 1992 | Basic GSM |
| Phase 2 | 1995 | GSM features including EFR Codec |
| Release 96 | Q1 1997 | GSM Updates, 14.4 kbps user data |
| Release 97 | Q1 1998 | GSM additional features, GPRS |
| Release 98 | Q1 1999 | GSM additional features, GPRS for PCS 1900, AMR, EDGE |
| Release 99 | Q1 2000 | 3G UMTS incorporating WCDMA radio access |
| Release 4 | Q2 2001 | UMTS all-IP Core Network |
| Release 5 | Q1 2002 | IMS and HSDPA |
| Release 6 | Q4 2004 | HSUPA, MBMS, IMS enhancements, Push to Talk over Cellular, operation with WLAN |
| Release 7 | Q4 2007 | Improvements in QoS & latency, VoIP, HSPA+, NFC integration, EDGE Evolution |
| Release 8 | Q4 2008 | Introduction of LTE, SAE, OFDMA, MIMO, Dual Cell HSDPA |
| Release 9 | Q4 2009 | WiMAX / LTE / UMTS interoperability, Dual Cell HSDPA with MIMO, Dual Cell HSUPA, LTE HeNB |
| Release 10 | Q1 2011 | LTE-Advanced, Backwards compatibility with Release 8 (LTE), Multi-Cell HSDPA |
| Release 11 | Q3 2012 | Heterogeneous networks (HetNet), Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), In device Coexistence (IDC), Advanced IP interconnection of Services, |
| Release 12 | Mar-15 | Enhanced Small Cells operation, Carrier Aggregation (2 uplink carriers, 3 downlink carriers, FDD/TDD carrier aggregation), MIMO (3D channel modelling, elevation beamforming, massive MIMO), MTC – UE Cat 0 introduced, D2D communication, eMBMS enhancements. |
| Release 13 | Q1 2016 | LTE-U / LTE-LAA, LTE-M, Elevation beamforming / Full Dimension MIMO, Indoor positioning, LTE-M Cat 1.4MHz & Cat 200kHz introduced |
| Release 14 | Mid 2017 | Elements on road to 5G |
| Release 15 | End 2018 | 5G Phase 1 specification |
| Release 16 | 2020 | 5G Phase 2 specification |
| Release 17 | 2022 | 5G Phase 3 specification |
3GPP2
There is a sister body to 3GPP named 3GPP2 which manages the standards for the evolution of CDMA2000 CDMA/1xRTT/EVDORevA/B. As both Telstra and Hutchison’s CDMA networks have closed (Telstra April 2008 and Hutchison August 2006) 3GPPS standards are no longer relevant to main stream cellular in Australia, They are of diminishing importance world wide as the large operators using CDMA moved to LTE as their 4G technology and the whole World had adopted 3GPP 5G.
IEEE 802.16
The other major 4G stream of standards is based on US based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE 802.16e and m WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). Vivid deployed WiMax equipment in Australia. It was acquired by Optus (February 2012). The mainland capitals only network was closed and the spectrum used on Optus’ TDD LTE network.