3GPP approved its Release-18 package at the December 2021 RAN plenary meeting
3GPP’s Release 18 (Rel.18) will certainly set the initial phase towards 5G-Advanced as the mid-point of 5G standardization. Indeed, the 3GPP has already announced its decision to recognize Rel.18 as the first release of 5G Advanced.
3GPP approved its Release-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 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 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.
5G Advanced kicks off the second phase of the 5G decade, bringing a new wave of wireless technology innovations. 5G Advanced is expected to strengthen the 5G system foundation with the main aim of improving speed, coverage, mobility and power efficiency. 5G Advanced also will seek to proliferate 5G to virtually all devices, deployments and use cases.
According to U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, the Rel.18 package approved in December of last year includes a set of projects that aims to deliver a balanced 5G Advanced evolution which will address the short and longer terms needs of enhanced mobile broadband and expanded vertical use cases across the end-to-end 5G system.
Some of the key projects to be analyzed during Rel.18 discussions include advanced downlink/uplink MIMO, enhanced mobility, mobile integrated access/backhaul (IAB) and smart repeaters, evolved duplexing, AI/ML data-driven designs and green networks. Some key projects to expand 5G to virtually all devices and use cases include boundless extended reality (XR), NR-Light (RedCap) evolution, expanded sidelink, expanded positioning, drones and enhanced satellites and multicast enhancements, Qualcomm said.
Qualcomm also highlighted that there are several other Rel.18 projects that bring additional improvements to the 5G system, including enhancements to dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), multi-SIM, in-device coexistence, small data transmission, quality of experience, carrier aggregation, self-organizing network/minimization of drive test (SON/MDT) and more.
According to Swedish vendor Ericsson, one key component of 5G Advanced is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) based on machine learning (ML) techniques. “AI/ML is expected to trigger a paradigm shift in future wireless networks. AI/ML-based solutions will be used to introduce intelligent network management and solve multi-dimensional optimization issues with respect to real-time and non-real-time network operation,” Ericsson said.
“AI/ML will also be used to improve the radio interface by further optimizing the performance of complex multi-antenna systems, for example. New use cases such as extended reality (XR) communication will use wireless networks to provide immersive experiences in cyber-physical environments and enable human-machine interactions using wireless devices and wearables,” the European vendor added.
According to Ericsson, three of the most notable Rel.18 additions for eMBB use cases are beamforming/MIMO, mobility enhancements and network power savings, while the most notable enhancements for non-eMBB applications include RedCap, XR and national security and public safety (NSPS).
“RedCap UEs are expected to play a significant role in many future applications. Based on Rel.17, Rel.18 RedCap solutions will further reduce device cost and power consumption. Solutions enabling energy harvesting, such as energy-efficient wake-up radios, will be investigated,” Ericsson said.
Ericsson also highlighted three cross-domain functionalities that target both MBB and non-MBB use cases in Rel.18: AI/ML for physical layer (PHY) enhancements, AI/ML for RAN enhancements, and full duplex.
In the coming years, 3GPP Release 18 will certainly enhance the performance of 5G systems, introduce features to enable more flexible and efficient spectrum use, advance the support of diverse devices, evolve network topology to facilitate different deployments, and provide data-driven, intelligent network solutions.
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