The evolution of 5G New Radio (NR) has progressed swiftly since the 3GPP standardized the first NR release (release 15) in mid-2018. Not only is release 16 nearly finalized but the scope of release 17 has also recently been approved.  3GPP plans to evolve 5G in three phases: Phase 1 – 3GPP Release 15 provided […]

Introduction The 2nd phase of 5G is being finalized in 3GPP, with the Rel-16 version of the specifications being frozen around June 2020. The 3GPP Plenary meetings in December 2019 decided the work program for the set of features to be included in Rel-17, which is scheduled for completion 15 months after Rel-16. Release 16 […]

Release 16 is designed to be an 18-month project that wraps up at the end of 2019. The three key performance indicators for 5G are faster peak rates (the enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB), more connections per cell (massive machine-type communication, mMTC), and lower latency (ultra-reliable low-latency communications, URLLC). Most of Release 15 focused on the […]