Governance models and standards

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a UN specialized agency and was founded in 1865; it took its present name in 1932, before becoming a specialized agency in the UN. It plays a significant role worldwide in wireless communication standards, navigation, mobile, internet, data, voice, and next-gen networks. It includes 193 member nations and 700 public and private organizations. It too has a number of working groups called sectors. The sector relevant to cellular standards is the Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). The ITU-R is the body that defines the international standards and goals for various generations of radio and cellular communication. These include reliability goals and minimum data rates.

The ITU-R has produced two fundamental specifications that have governed cellular communication in the last decade. The first was the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), which specifies the requirements for a device to be marketed as 3G. More recently, the ITU-R produced a requirement specification called International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced). The IMT-Advanced system is based on an all-IP mobile broadband wireless system. The IMT-Advanced defines what can be marketed as 4G worldwide. The ITU was the group that approved of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology in the 3GPP roadmap to support the goals of 4G cellular communication in October of 2010. The ITU-R continues to drive the new requirements for 5G.

Examples of the ITU-Advanced set of requirements for a cellular system to be labeled 4G include:

Must be an all-IP, packet-switched network
Interoperable with existing wireless
A nominal data rate of 100 Mbps when the client is moving and 1 GBps while the client is fixed
Dynamically share and use network resources to support more than one user per cell
Scalable channel bandwidth of 5 to 20 MHz
Seamless connectivity and global roaming across multiple networks

The issue is that often the entire set of ITU goals are not met, and there exists naming and branding confusion:

Feature	1G	2/2.5G	3G	4G	5G
First Availability	1979	1999	2002	2010	2020
ITU-R Specification	NA	NA	IMT-2000	IMT-Advanced	IMT-2020
ITU-R Frequency Specification	NA	NA	400 MHZ to 3 GHz	450 MHz to 3.6 GHz	TBD
ITU-R Bandwidth Specification	NA	NA	Stationary: 2 Mbps Moving: 384 Kbps	Stationary: 1 Gbps Moving: 100 Mbps	Min Down: 20 Gbps Min Up: 10 Gbps
Typical Bandwidth	2 Kbps	14.4-64 Kbps	500 to 700 Kbps	100 to 300 Mbps (peak)	TBD?
Usage/Features	Mobile telephony only.	Digital voice, SMS text, caller-ID, one-way data.	Superior audio, video, and data. Enhanced roaming.	Unified IP and seamless LAN/WAN/WLAN.	IoT, ultra density, low latency.
Standards and Multiplexing	AMPS	2G: TDMA, CDMA, GSM 2.5G: GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT	FDMA, TDMA WCDMA, CDMA-2000	CDMA	CDMA
Handoff	Horizontal	Horizontal	Horizontal	Horizontal and vertical	Horizontal and vertical
Core Network	PSTN	PSTN	Packet Switch	Internet	Internet
Switching	Circuit	Circuit for access network and air network	Packet-based except for air interface	Packet-based	Packet-based
Technology	Analog Cellular	Digital Cellular	Broad bandwidth CDMA, WiMAX, IP-based	LTE Advanced Pro-based	LTE Advanced Pro-based, mmWave

The other standard body in the cellular world, 3GPP, is the acronym for the Third Generation Partnership Project and is the group of seven telecom organizations (also known as the Organizational Partners) from across the globe that manage and govern cellular technology. The group formed in 1998 with the partnership of Nortel Networks and AT&T Wireless and released the first standard in 2000. Organizational Partners and Market Representatives contribute to 3GPP from Japan, the USA, China, Europe, India, and Korea. The overall goal of the group is to recognize standards and specifications for the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in the creation of the 3G specifications for cellular communication. 3GPP work is performed by three Technical Specification Groups (TSG) and six Working Groups (WG). The groups meet several times per year in different regions. The main focus of 3GPP releases is to make the system backward and forward compatible (as much as possible).

There is a degree of confusion in the industry as to the differences between the ITU, 3GPP, and LTE definitions. The easiest way to conceptualize the relationship is that the ITU will define the goals and standards worldwide for a device to be labeled 4G or 5G. The 3GPP responds to goals with technologies such as the family of LTE improvements. The ITU still ratifies that such LTE advancements meet their requirements to be labeled 4G or 5G.

The figure below shows the 3GPP technology releases since 2000. Boxed are the LTE evolution technologies.

3GPP Releases from 2000 to 2020.

LTE and its role in the cellular vernacular are also often confused. LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution and is the path followed to achieve ITU-R speeds and requirements (which are initially quite aggressive). Mobile phone vendors will release new smartphones in an existing cellular neighborhood using legacy backend technology such as 3G. Carriers advertise 4G-LTE connectivity if they demonstrated a substantial improvement in speed and features over their legacy 3G networks. In the mid to late-2000s, many carriers did not meet the ITU-R 4G specification but essentially got close enough. Carriers used legacy technologies and rebranded themselves as 4G in many cases. LTE-Advanced is yet another improvement that gets even closer to ITU-R goals.

In summary, the terminology can be confusing and misleading and an architect needs to read beyond the branding labels to understand the technology.

Table of Contents for Governance models and standards

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Governance models and standards