3GPP freezes standalone 5G NR specifications

The 3GPP has approved the completion of standalone Release 15 specifications for 5G at the Technical Specifications Group’s 80th plenary meeting.

The meeting brought together more than 600 representatives of the world’s major operators and network, smartphone and chipset vendors to witness the historic freeze of standalone 5G new radio (5G NR) specifications.

It flows the release of the 5G NR specifications for non-standalone operation in December, and paves the way for the expected launch of the first 5G mobile broadband networks in the US later this year.

The new standard introduces a brand new end-to-end architecture for mobile network and will facilitate the introduction of new business models and an era of unparalleled connectivity.

“The 5G System specification has now reached its official stage of completion, thanks to the intense efforts of hundreds of engineers over the past three years,” 3GPP TSA chairman Erik Guttman said.

“A special acknowledgment is due to those who led this remarkable effort in diverse committees. 5G promises a broad expansion of telecommunications, as an ever more central component of our economies, societies and individual activities.”

Telecoms industry representatives at the meeting included delegates from China Mobile, APT, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, KDDI, KT, LG Uplus, NTT Docomo, SK Telecom, Softbank,  Vodafone.

Multiple equipment vendors were also represented, including Ericsson, Huawei, Fujitsu, LG Electronics  Lenovo, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Mobile Communications, Xiaomi and ZTE.

Meanwhile Ericsson, Intel, the China Mobile Research Institute and China Mobile Jiangsu have announced the completion of the first live 3GPP compliant standalone 5G new radio interoperability tests.

The tests, which were completed based on the shared physical layer specifications of the non-standalone and standalone 5G NR standards, used Ericsson’s 5G NR base stations and Intel’ 5G mobile trial platform in a live network operating on 100MHz of 3.5-GHz midband spectrum.

“Successfully completing the first 3GPP-compliant Standalone 5G NR call marks another milestone with our ecosystem partners on the path to 5G commercialization, building on our years of research and standardization,” Ericsson EVP and head of networks Fredrik Jejdling said.

“Together, we’re delivering on our commitment to realize a standard-compliant and easily deployable technology that will bring benefits to our customers and end users.”