According to a recent study by the GSMA, the industry is targeting commercialization of Rel.18 from 2024 onwards
3GPP approved its Release 18 (Rel.18) package at the December 2021 RAN plenary meeting. The package includes 27 diverse study or work items that will further boost network performance and address new 5G use cases. In particular, the package features work on embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies in the evolution of 5G Advanced.
According to a recent study by the GSMA, the industry is targeting commercialization of Rel.18 from 2024 onwards. As it evolves, 5G Advanced will play an important role bridging from 5G to 6G with new features previously not standardized in 3GPP, GSMA said.
“Operators will use 5G-Advanced for improved service offering, better utilization of spectrum and network assets while minimizing the energy consumption required to deliver communication services in the 2020s, with an ever-increasing demand for data volume and global connections,” the GSMA report reads.
According to the timeline set by the 3GPP, the stage 2 of Rel.18 will be frozen in 2023 while the stage 3 is expected to be frozen during the last quarter of 2023 or first quarter of 2024. 3GPP also expects the protocol coding freeze during 2024.
Rel.18 will be the initial kick off of 5G Advanced technology. However, the full potential of 5G Advanced will be also specified by 3GPP Releases 19 and 20, after which 3GPP’s work will focus on 6G, which will hit the market around 2030, according to several voices in the industry.
David Wang, Huawei’s executive director of the board and chairman of ICT infrastructure managing board, recently said during a keynote speech at the Huawei Mobile Broadband Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, that after two years of concerted efforts across the industry, “5.5G”, or 5G Advanced has seen huge progress, adding that the standardization of advanced 5G specifications has been initiated and is on right on track, making it more than just a vision.
Wang also noted that three types of “5.5G”-enabled IoT technologies, namely NB-IoT, RedCap, and passive IoT, are developing rapidly and will support numerous IoT connections.
“Looking ahead, our task is to tackle these five new areas – standards, spectrum, products, ecosystems, and applications,” Wang added.
Wang added that the industry must work together to ensure that Release 18 is frozen by the first quarter of 2024 as planned, which will help “5.5G” networks to become a reality.
The executive also highlighted that further innovation will be needed in regards to 5.5G chips and devices to make them more intelligent while it will also be necessary to develop an ecosystem to better address digital requirements in all scenarios.
“RedCap will evolve in 5G-Advanced to further strengthen support for cost-efficient devices and/or power-sensitive applications, such as industrial wireless sensor networks, and smart watches, smart eyewear and other wearables. 5G-Advanced will also provide further support for utilities and public safety use cases by addressing operation in dedicated frequency bands and support channel bandwidths below 5 MHz. Other applications will address the specific needs of vertical sectors with regard to time-sensitive networks (TSN), timing-as-a-service, precise network-based positioning and improved integrity of positioning based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS),” according to the GSMA report.
In addition, 5G-Advanced technology will provide communications support for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as satellites or HAPS operating as non-terrestrial networks with full seamless interworking with terrestrial networks, GSMA added.
