White paper gives overview of LTE and 5G developments

Tuesday, 19 January, 2021

A detailed overview of developments in 3GPP Releases 16 and 17, as well as 5G standardisation, features in a white paper newly released by 5G Americas.

“Overseen by 3GPP, standardisation of cellular communication technical specifications has played a pivotal role in defining and enabling future innovation. Despite all the global challenges during this historic year dealing with COVID-19, 3GPP finalised Release 16 and initiated the work on Release 17,” said Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.

In Release 16, 3GPP has continued enriching the 5G system with new features such as ultra-reliable low latency architecture support, 5G LAN services, Time Sensitive Networking for Industrial IoT, Non-Public Networks and much more.

Release 17 will introduce new features such as extending the operation of NR to spectrum above 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz, introducing Reduced Capability NR devices that enable additional services beyond conventional high-quality Enhanced Mobile Broadband Services and low-complexity services enabled by LTE-MTC (Machine Type Communications) and NB-IoT (Narrow Band IoT), as well as Enhanced Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.

The white paper covers:

update and details on 3GPP timeline with new refined changes and additions due to COVID-19
ITU-R and the 3GPP IMT-2020 submission
background on LTE and evolution of LTE in Releases 16 and 17
background on New Radio (NR) and evolution of NR in Releases 16 and 17
detail on system architecture and network-related features
visions and considerations on next-generation wireless networks.

“Future wireless networks will need to be able to address entirely new use cases and support a wide range of existing and future spectrum bands,” said Erik Dahlman, Senior Radio Expert, Ericsson Research, and co-leader of the working group that developed the white paper.

“Furthermore, artificial intelligence will become increasingly more important as an integrated part of the network. Tremendous progress has been made with Release 16 and 17.”

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