RAN #90e 5G Standardization Update

As Time Goes By

01/03/2021 | 17 pages
Price: $550.00

SRG participated in the 3GPP RAN Plenary which took place in mid-December.  In this report we provide an update on the 5G standardization process, including analysis and commentary on some of the study items and work items that we thought were the most interesting during the week-long event.

Highlights of the Report include the following:

Six-month Delay.  As should come as no surprise, 5G standardization activities get bogged down when done remotely and with e-meetings.  In addition to the 3-month delay which occurred back in March, there is now an additional 6-month delay.  It is unlikely 3GPP meets face-to-face until after summer 2021 – much will be decided at the March Plenary.  Reduced functionality or at least much lower probability for scope creep in existing study/work items is inevitable if the current schedule is maintained.  Not the end of the world since the industry needs to commercialize and deploy lots of R15 and R16 functionality in the interim.

Interesting Items.  In part due to the controversy and in part due to our areas of interest, we thought the work/study items involving coverage and positioning enhancements, reduced capability devices like wearables, high-power CPEs for FWA, 5G NR repeaters, and frequencies above 52.6 GHz were the most notable topics discussed.

FWA Update.  As suggested in our mmWave FWA report, an operator is not locked into using a particular frequency band for fixed wireless access.  In fact, one US operator is pushing for high-power CPEs in Band 77/78, suggesting it is equally interested in using mid-band spectrum to offer FWA services, in addition to the mmWave spectrum it is already using.  Intelligent repeaters is another interesting feature to help extend coverage while maximizing performance.