What is 3GPP?

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is an international collaboration between seven telecommunications standard development organisations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSG, ITU, and TTA) that collaborate to create and maintain the technical specifications for 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE-Advanced, and 5G mobile networks. The 3GPP also works with other providers, such as mobile phone manufacturers, mobile networks, software vendors, and telecoms, to ensure the development of the latest technologies.

History of 3GPP

The 3GPP was founded in December 1998 as a result of the merger of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) and the third generation partnership project 2 (3GPP2). 3GPP is the successor of the Technical Specification Group GSM (GSM/GPRS) and the Technical Specification Group of the IMT-2000 (UMTS/HSPA). This merger was a response to the increasing demand for global standards in the telecommunications industry and the need for a single unified standards body.

What are the Benefits of 3GPP?

The 3GPP has been instrumental in setting global standards for mobile communications and is responsible for the development of the core network, radio access networks, and various other related technologies. 3GPP standards provide the foundation for the development of new technologies, such as 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile broadband. The standards also ensure interoperability and seamless roaming between different mobile networks across the globe.

What are the key 3GPP standards?

3GPP has released quite a few standards. Below you will find a few notable ones:

• Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
• System Architecture Evolution (SAE)
• Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
• Long Term Evolution (LTE)
• Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
• High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA)
• Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)
• 5G New Radio (NR)
• Mobile Broadcast Services (MBS)
• Voice over IP (VoIP)
• Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS)
• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

The latest 5G standard from 3GPP is called Release 16, which was published in March 2020. Release 16 introduces several new features and technologies that will help to improve the performance and speed of 5G networks, as well as increase the security of 5G communications. These include support for wireless technologies such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Slicing, as well as improved capabilities for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. Additionally, Release 16 provides the necessary specifications and tools to enable the deployment of 5G networks in a wide range of connectivity scenarios, from home broadband and enterprise applications to public safety and industrial IoT.