Debrief from 3GPP SA #87e: March 2020

This Debrief comes from the Chair of the 5G-IA Pre-Standardization WG: Riccardo Trivisonno, Huawei (Germany) as part of the group's efforts to track progress on 5G standardisation, support inputs from 5G PPP technical projects and help gap analyses for future standardisation work. 

The SA #87 Plenary in March 2020 took place as an e-Meeting due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The meeting focused on reports from SA WG chairs; new and revised Rel-16 items and earlier SIs (Study Items) and WIs (Work Items); new and revised descriptions of Rel-17 SIs; descriptions for new Rel-17 WIs; release planning. Please note that some items were pending approval at the time of writing this Briefing. 

Status Reports from each SA WG
SA WG1 (Services): SP-200120, SA WG1 Report to TSG SA#87.
SA WG2 (Architecture): SP-200059, SA WG2 Chairmans report to TSG SA#87.
SA WG3 (Security): SP-200132, SA WG3 Status report.
SA WG4 (Codec): SP-200032, SA WG4 Status Report at TSG SA#87.
SA WG5 (Telecom management): SP-200218, SA WG5 Status report.
SA WG6 (Mission-critical applications): SP-200106, SA WG6 status report to TSG SA#87.

New Approved Rel. 16 WIs
SA4: Ambient noise test methodology for evaluation of acoustic UE performance (ANTeM)

Rel. 16 Exception Requests ( WI delayed )
SA3: eV2X (Study on Security Aspects of 3GPP support for Advanced V2X Services), 5G_eSBA, IAB (Building Block for IAB: Study on Security Aspects of the 5G service based Architecture), SEAL (Security aspects of SEAL; building block for lawful interception), AKMA (Authentication and key management for applications based on 3GPP credential in 5G), 5WWC (Building Block for 5WWC; Study on Security Aspects of 3GPP Support for advanced V2X services), 5G_CIoT (Study on Evolution of Cellular IoT Security for the 5G System), eNS (Building Block: Study on Security Aspects of Enhancement of Network Slicing), 5G_eLCS (Building Block under Study on Security Aspects of 3GPP support for advanced V2X Series), MCXSec (Mission Critical Services Security Enhancements).
SA4: E_FLUS (Enhancements to Framework for Live Uplink Streaming), 5GMS3 (5G Media Streaming Stage 3). 
SA5: QOED (Management of QoE measurement collection), CHFCQM (CHF-controlled quota management), MA5SLA (Management Aspects of 5G Service-Level Agreement), 5GS_NSMCH (Network Slice Management Charging in 5G System), COSLA (Closed loop SLS Assurance), ATSSS (Charging Access of ATSSS; Building Block under Enhancement of performance assurance for 5G networks including network slicing), 5WWC (Charging Aspect for 5WWC; Building Block under Study on Management and Orchestration aspects with integrated satellite components in a 5G network), 5GS_NSPACH (Network Slice Performance and Analytics Charging in 5G System), EE_5G (Energy Efficiency of 5G), TM_SBMA (Trace Management in the Context of Services Based Management Archiecture), OAM_RTT (Streaming Trace Reporting), MEMTANE (Enhancement of 3GPP management system for multiple tenant environment support), 5G_SLICE_ePA (Enhancement of performance assurance for 5G networks including network slicing), 5GDMS (Discovery of management services in 5G), SON_5G (Self-Organizing Networks (SON) for 5G networks), eNRM (NRM enhancements).

New Approved Rel. 17 SIs

SA4:

• Feasibility Study on Multicast Architecture Enhancements for 5G Media Streaming (FS_5GMS_Multicast; SP-200055).
• Feasibility Study on Video Codec Characteristics for 5G-based services and applications (FS_5GVideo); TR 26.955
• Study on the use of NBMP in EFLUS (FS_FLUS_NBMP; SP-200053)
• Feasibility Study on Typical Traffic Characteristics for XR Services and other Media (FS_XRTraffic; SP-200054).
• New SID Streaming Architecture extensions For Edge processing (FS_EMSA; SP-200056).

SA5:

• New SID New areas on EE for 5G networks (SP-200187).
• New SID on edge computing management (SP-200195). 

New Approved Rel. 17 WIs
SA2: 

• New WID: Enhancement to the 5GC Location Services - Phase 2 (5G_ELCS_Ph2; SP-200082)
• New WID: Stage 2 of Multimedia Priority Service (MPS) Phase 2 (MPS2_ST2; SP-200084)

SA3:

• New WID on Security Assurance Specification for Non-3GPP InterWorking Function (N3IWF; SP-200146).
• New WID on Security Assurance Specification for 5G NWDAF (SP-200147).
• New WID on Security Assurance Specification for Service Communication Proxy (SECOP; SP-200148).
• New WID for 5G SCAS Enhancement (SP-200149).

New Approved Rel. 17 WIs and Revised WIDs
SA5: 

• New WID Enhancements on EE for 5G networks (SP-200187).
• New WID Management of non-public networks (SP-200189).
• New WID Enhancement on Management Aspects of 5G Service-Level Agreement (SP-200190).
• New WID Management of MDT enhancement in 5G (SP-200191).
• New WID Additional NRM features (SP-200192). 
• New WID Enhancement of QoE Measurement Collection (SP-200193).
• New WID Self-Organizing Networks (SON) for 5G networks (SP-200194).
• Revised WID on Enhanced Closed loop SLS assurance (SP-200196).

SA6: 

• New WID on Enhanced Mission Critical Push-to-talk architecture phase 3 (enh4MCPTT; SP-200108). 

Release Planning

Due to COVID-19, the Rel. 17 and Rel. 16 timeline shift was agreed entailing a 3-month shift. 

Rel. 17 (SP-200225), from WG1, WG2, WG6, CT1, CT4

Q1 could only have e-meetings with reduced scope. Focus only on the immediately necessary Rel-16 items, to be completed by June 2020 latest, to meet the IMT-2020 submission deadlines.

Q2: all April meetings cancelled/converted to e-meetings. Focus will be mainly on Rel-16.

Original planning (as per Dec. 2019 plenaries): stage 2 SA groups main focus would have been on Rel-17 in Q1 and Q2. This obviously did not happen.

3GPP CT and 3GPP SA are asked to approve the following timeline/dates for Rel-17:

• Stage 2 freeze: December 2020 (originally planned for September 2020)
• Stage 3 freeze: September 2021 (9 months after stage 2 freeze)
• ASN.1 and Open API specification freeze: December 2021

Note that it is assumed that RAN approves Rel-17 timelines which are aligned.

The approved content of Rel-17 is not affected by this decision.

Rel. 16 (SP-200292), from SA/CT Chairs 
3GPP CT and 3GPP SA are asked to approve the following for Rel-16:
1. Rel-16 Stage 3 freeze: June 2020 (shifted by 3 months)
2. Rel-16 ASN.1 and OpenAPI specification freeze: June 2020 (stays as planned)
3. Exception sheets for Rel-16 items should be made available by the relevant 3GPP CT and WG groups at March plenaries. These exception sheets will not be approved but endorsed as guidance for the work in Q2.
4. The Rel-16 WIs and issues listed on the exception sheets have to be treated with priority in Q2/2020.

Note that it is assumed that RAN approves aligned timelines (bullet 1 and 2) for Rel-16.