TTA to Host 5G Advanced Technology Standards Meeting in Korea

The Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) announced that it will host the international meetings of five 3GPP Radio Access Network working groups from the 22nd to the 26th at Paradise City and Grand Hyatt Incheon Hotel in Incheon.

3GPP working groups are meetings that develop detailed technical specifications. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, some in-person meetings have been held since the second half of last year, but this is the first in-person meeting held outside Europe. More than 1,300 experts from global manufacturers, domestic and international mobile operators, and research institutes will attend to discuss 5G evolution specifications, including Release 18, the first technical standard of 5G Advanced.

3GPP Meeting Scene [Photo by TTA]

The meetings will cover improvements in foundational technologies such as existing multi-antenna, uplink performance enhancement, terminal mobility management optimization, and smart repeaters, as well as sidelink enhancements (support for unlicensed bands and FR2 bands), NR IoT terminals (Redcap), high-precision positioning, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) improvements, and extended reality (XR) support for converged service expansion technologies. Detailed discussions will also be held on AI and machine learning (ML), next-generation duplex technologies, and green networks, which are key technologies on the path to 6G evolution.

The detailed radio access technical specifications for Release 18 are targeted for completion by the end of this year. The physical layer specifications are expected to finalize function definitions at the August meeting, making this working group meeting an important step in building consensus on the core technologies of Release 18. Additionally, at this meeting, the re-election of Yoonseon Kim, Samsung Electronics Master, as chair of the Physical Layer (RAN1) working group was confirmed. He will continue to serve as chair for the next two years. It is expected that Korea’s influence in 3GPP will be strengthened as he leads standardization in key areas through Release 19 and the initial stages of 6G research.

Younghae Choi, Chairman of TTA, stated, “It is highly meaningful to host the core 3GPP working group meetings in Korea at a crucial time when the blueprint for 3GPP Release 18 5G-Advanced standard technology is being completed.” He added, “This international meeting is the first case where domestic 3GPP member companies jointly hosted a 3GPP working group. TTA will also host the 3GPP System Architecture (SA) working group international meeting next year to expand opportunities for domestic industry participation in 3GPP and to strengthen international standardization capabilities.”