by ITU-R WP 5D Chair persons with Editor’s Note (and copy edits) by Alan J Weissberger, IEEE Techblog Content Manager

Main activities of WP5D WG Technology Aspects during meeting #33 (Dec 10-13 in Geneva) were:

i) Review additional materials provided by the candidate IMT-2020 RIT/SRIT proponents ETSI (TC DECT) and DECT Forum, Nufront and TSDSI, per the agreed way forward at the 32^nd meeting of WP 5D regarding their respective submissions;

ii) Review of external activities in Independent Evaluation Groups (for candidate IMT 2020 RIT/SRITs) through interim evaluation reports;

iii) Continue work on revision of Recommendation ITU-R M.1457-14 (specification of terrestrial radio interfaces for IMT-2000)

iv) Start working on Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME].

v) Start working on Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS].

During this meeting, WG Technology Aspects established three Sub-Working Groups (SWG):

–                 SWG Coordination (Chair: Mr. Yoshio HONDA)

–                 SWG Evaluation (Co-Chair: Ms. Ying PENG)

–                 SWG IMT Specifications (Chair: Mr. Yoshinori ISHIKAWA)

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Review of updated materials of IMT-2020 submissions:

As per the agreed way forward at the 32^nd WP 5D meeting regarding candidate IMT-2020 RIT/SRIT submissions of ETSI (TC DECT) and DECT Forum, Nufront and TSDSI, the respective proponents provided updated materials of their submissions on September 10^th of 2019.

After review of these updated materials of submissions under the IMT-2020 Process Step 3 – Submission / reception of the RIT and SRIT proposals and acknowledgement of receipt, the meeting determined that the submissions of ETSI (TC DECT) and DECT Forum, Nufront and TSDSI are “complete” per Section 5 of Report ITU-R M.2411 (Requirements, evaluation criteria and submission templates for the development of IMT-2020).

Editor’s Note:  Also see ITU-R Report M.2412: Guidelines for evaluation of radio interface technologies for IMT-2020.

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During the course of this review, documents for observations on the submissions were updated.

Review of interim evaluation reports:

A workshop on IMT-2020 terrestrial radio interfaces evaluation was conducted at beginning of this WP 5D meeting (Dec 10-11, 2019), where the registered independent evaluation groups presented their activities and findings. In addition, some independent evaluation groups also submitted interim evaluation reports. The meeting reviewed these contributions and recorded them.

Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME]:

The meeting created the draft detailed workplan and draft working document towards a prelimininary draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME] which will collect outcomes from Step 4 to 7 in IMT-2020 development process. Those two documents were carried forward to the next meeting for further work.

Detailed schedule for development of IMT-2020.SPECS:

Detailed workplan for development of draft new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS] and its working document were developed in the meeting.  A related liaison statement to the external organizations was also developed.

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Editor’s Note: 

IMHO, the IMT 2020.SPECS schedule is NOT realistic, mainly because there isn’t enough time for 5D WG Technology Aspects to evaluate 3GPPs expected Release 16 submission at their June 2020 meeting.  Note that China, Korea and India (TSDSI) have all based their IMT 2020 RIT submissions on 3GPP Release 15 “5G NR” data plane which must be enhanced in IMT 2020.SPECs to meet the ultra high reliability/ultra high latency performance requirements for both the data and control planes.

There are only two more WP 5D meetings in 2020 (see last section below) after the June 2020 5D meeting, yet a complete IMT 2020.SPECs must be submitted by Nov 23, 2020 to ITU-R SG 5 (5D’s parent) for approval.  If not, IMT 2020 will become IMT 2021 (or later if companion IMT 2020 recommendations have not been approved).  What good is it to have a 5G data plane without ultra low latency/ultra high reliability and a 4G (EPC) packet core?  With no 5G network management or 5G security specified (presumably by ITU-T)?

Specifically, what if the 5G Mobile Packet Core (3GPP 5GC), enhanced 5G control plane/signaling, 5G network management, 5G security, etc (all in 3GPP Release 16) are not completed in time to be considered by ITU-R or ITU-T in 2020?

Another danger is IMT 2020.SPECS revision control with multiple RIT submissions dependent on 3GPP 5G NR.  What if some proponents stick with Release 15 NR while others adopt Release 16 NR in July 2020?  And how can all the different proponent IMT 2020 RITs be harmonized to ensure interoperability and roaming?

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Objective for the 34th WP 5D meeting – Feb 2020 in Geneva:

The key objectives of WG Technology Aspects for the 34^th WP 5D meeting are as follows:

i) Review of external activities and evaluation reports of Independent Evaluation Groups.

ii) Complete evaluation reports summary (IMT-2020/ZZZ).

iii)    Continue working on a new Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME].

iv) Continue the work on “Over-the-air (OTA) TRP field measurements for IMT radio equipment utilizing AAS” based on the requested response from 3GPP and expected input from other organisations and administrations.

v) Continue working on revision of Recommendation ITU-R M.1457-14.

vi) Continue working on new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020. SPECS]

Submitted by Ying Peng, Chair, SWG Evaluation

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M.[IMT-2020.SPECS]:

Under agenda item 4 (PDN Rec. ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS]), the meeting received two input contributions from Korea, Japan and China.

Both contributions proposed the detailed work plan for developing the new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS] and the working document towards a preliminary draft new Recommendation.

The meeting reviewed those proposals and discussed the work plan and contents for the working document and agreed the detailed work plan and the working document towards a PDNR (preliminary draft new report).

Detailed workplan and working document towards PDNR M. [IMT‑2020.OUTCOME]

The meeting created the draft detailed work plan and draft working document towards PDNR M.[IMT-2020.OUTCOME] based on the carried forward document and input contributions to this meeting. Two TEMP Documents were created accordingly and will be carried forward to the next meeting.

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Meeting #33 also created a liaison statement to relevant External Organizations (RIT/SRIT Proponents, potential GCS Proponent(s) of IMT-2020) to request the inputs to 34^th and 35^th meetings in accordance with Doc. IMT-2020/21. WG-IMT Specification seeks approval of this liaison in WG Technology Aspects Plenary and WP 5D Plenary.

Submitted by Yoshinori ISHIKAWA, Chairman, SWG IMT Specifications

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RECOMMENDATION ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS]:

Detailed specifications of the terrestrial radio interfaces of International
Mobile Telecommunications-2020 (IMT-2020)

Scope:

This Recommendation identifies the terrestrial radio interface technologies of International Mobile Telecommunications-2020 (IMT-2020) and provides the detailed radio interface specifications.

Korea, Japan:

[These radio interface specifications detail the features and parameters of IMT-2020, which enable worldwide compatibility, international roaming, access to the services under the usage scenarios including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC) and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC).]

China:

[These radio interface specifications detail the features and parameters of IMT-2020. This Recommendation includes the capability to ensure worldwi.de compatibility, international roaming, access to enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC) and ultra reliability and low latency communications (URLLC).]

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For more details on skeleton IMT 2020.SPECs and related work plan, please see:

China ITU-R WP5D submission: work plan and working document for IMT-2020.SPECS

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Because of their ultra critical importance we repeat the objectives of the last three WP 5D meetings in 2020:

Meeting No. 35 (Jun. 2020, [China])

1   Receive and review information, including the texts for its RIT/SRIT overview sections, List of Global Core Specifications and Certification B by GCS Proponents[1].

2   Reach its conclusion on the acceptability of the proposed materials for inclusion in the working document towards PDN Rec. ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS].

3   Finalizes the working document including specific technologies (not necessarily including the detailed transposition references) and provisionally agree for promoting the document to preliminary draft new Recommendation.

4   Provide and send liaison of the provisionally agreed preliminary draft new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS] to the relevant GCS Proponents and Transposing Organizations for their use in developing their inputs of the detailed references.

Meeting No. 36 (Oct. 2020, [India])

1   Update PDNR if there are modifications proposed by GCS Proponent.

2   Perform a quality and completion check of the provisionally agreed final draft new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS] without the hyperlinks.

3   Have follow-up communications initiated with GCS Proponents and/or Transposing Organizations, if necessary.

Meeting No. 36bis (Nov. 2020, Geneva)

1   Receive Transposition references and Certification C from each Transposing Organization.

2   Perform the final quality and completeness check (with detailed transposition references) of the preliminary draft new Recommendation and promotes it to draft new Recommendation.

3   —>Send the draft new Recommendation ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.SPECS] to Study Group 5 for consideration (at their Nov 23-24, 2020 meeting).

[1]   If the GCS Proponentrnal (potential GCS Proponent) decides to use DIS style, it doesn’t need to submit List of Global Core Specifications but needs to submit full materials for describing its RIT/SRIT in the Recommendation and Form B.

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