3GPP Statement on LTE-Advanced Status

8th April 2013

 

A public statement has been issued by 3GPP’s Project Coordination Group (PCG), approved during their meeting on 3rd April 2013.

 

The 3GPP Statement:

3GPP defines the standards for LTE, with the latest work focusing on LTE-Advanced, which includes all work from 3GPP Release 10 onwards.

 

3GPP recognises that in the marketplace a number of differing terms related to LTE are appearing. 3GPP reaffirms that the naming for the technology family and its evolution continues to be covered by the term LTE-Advanced, which remains the correct description for specifications currently being defined – from Release 10 onwards, including 3GPP Release 12.

 

The Partnership Project is working with its members and in coordination with the ITU Working Party 5D to be able to provide future guidance on how 3GPP LTE will progress in future Releases.  

 

See also here: http://www.3gpp.org/3GPP-Statement-on-LTE-Advanced

 

 

NGMN Alliance Pushes for New Work Programme

Frankfurt, Germany - 11th March 2013

The Board of the NGMN Alliance has announced the launch of four new project activities highlighting the NGMN Alliance’s commitment to further enhance next generation networks and to guide the industry with its recommendations.

The following four new NGMN projects will determine the focus of the NGMN Alliance for the next 12 months:

• Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements
• Evolution of the Radio Access Network (RAN)
• Mobile Content Delivery Optimisation
• Deployment and Operation of Small Cells

The main tasks for the global NGMN Partner project teams will be the definition of Operator driven requirements, the development of use cases and the assessment of technology options in the four areas. The outcome of these projects will give essential guidance for the successful deployment, operations and further development of next generation mobile networks.

Dr. Peter Meissner, NGMN Operating Officer, emphasised that the new work programme reflects the current and future high-priority industry challenges as highlighted by the NGMN Partners. “The NGMN Alliance is happy to continue the development of Mobile Broadband for the benefit of the end-customer.”

In particular, the new NGMN projects will aim to reach the following objectives and will comprise the following activities:

Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements

The objective of the NGMN project Next Generation Converged Operations Requirements (NGCOR) is to reduce complexity and integration costs in the area of network management by achieving standardised interfaces between the Telco infrastructure and the OSS (Operations Support Systems). NGCOR aims to obtain more flexibility and reduced time-to-market in the introduction of services through standardised network management functionalities for converged fixed and mobile networks.

Main aspects of the project will be Configuration Management, Performance Management, Service Inventory Management and Architecture scenarios for management of Converged Networks.

Evolution of the Radio Access Network (RAN)

The RAN Evolution project will evaluate options and give recommendations for a future radio access network architecture providing optimised operations, higher efficiency and enhanced performance. The activity will cover, amongst other items, the evaluation of Centralised Cloud-based RAN, CoMP schemes, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, Backhaul/Fronthaul, and will finally define the overarching requirements for a Multi-RAT architecture evolution.

Mobile Content Delivery Optimisation

The project Mobile Content Delivery Optimisation will evaluate mobile network enhancements for the optimised delivery of content. The project aims to define use cases for Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and to develop related requirements. Furthermore, recommendations will be provided with regards to content delivery architecture options and CDN functionalities (like e.g. caching, media adaptation).

Deployment and Operation of Small Cells

The objective of project Small Cells is to define scenarios, use cases, system architecture and functional requirements for the fast and efficient introduction and operations of Small Cells. The work-streams of the project activity will deal in particular with the aspects of Wi-Fi integration, cost efficient deployment, operational issues, multi-vendor deployment and backhauling for Small Cells. 

NGMN Publishes Final Deliverable for Project BASTA

Frankfurt, Germany - 20th February 2013

 

The NGMN Alliance has today published its White Paper "Recommendation for Base Station Antenna Standards". The White Paper demonstrates the NGMN Alliance's commitment to enhance next generation networks' performance and quality of service. It is available for download at www.ngmn.org.

 

Currently ambiguities in antenna specifications resulting from a lack of standards make it difficult for today's RF engineering departments and supply chain managers to competently compare antenna products. Miscommunication during the procurement process on specification definitions and compliance to them is likely commonplace. All this will be reduced to a minimum by adopting the NGMN recommendations.

 

The performance of a Base Station Antenna is a key factor in the overall performance and quality of the cellular communication link. Introduction of globally accepted Base Station Antenna standards into the wireless industry will facilitate more informed and accurate cost/benefit decisions on antenna selection. Hence, standardisation in the marketplace will drive quality and improved performance into antenna products and result in positive impact to coverage, capacity and QoS.

 

The NGMN Alliance recommendations are the first comprehensive, global set of guidelines and principles focusing on the Base Station Antenna and are supported by major Base Station Antenna manufacturers as well as the world's leading Mobile Operators. The recommendations address in particular the following topics: Comprehensive recommendations on standards for electrical and mechanical parameters.Detailed methodologies for the analysis, calculation, and validation of antenna specifications.Guidance on best practices used in measurements for design validation and in production testing.Recommendations on applying existing environmental and reliability standards to Base Station Antennas.

 

 

The White Paper that contains these recommendations is available for download from the Technical Downloads section of the NGMN Website.

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