3GPP uses a system of pipelining “Releases” which provides developers with a platform for the implementation of features and then allows for the addition of new functionality in subsequent Releases.
Each Release has the following points:
- Full Release description.
- A Brief for each release.
- A table of features of this release.
- Each release has a functional freeze start date and Protocol stable end date.
- The start date for a Release is an indication of when the first work item for that Release was approved.
- The end date for a Release is an indication of when the detailed protocols become stable.
- Each release has a status of three (Open, Frozen or Closed).
- After “freezing”, a Release can have no further additional functions added.
3GPP Release since 1982:
5G Releases
5G has different phases and releases as below:
- Release 15, you can find all the details about this release from this link.
- Release 16, will focus more on capacity enhancement, operation efficiency and some improvements in V2X service handling.
- Release 17, Planning of this release will start in Q3 2019.
For more articles about 5G, from this LINK.