GSM and UMTS (P8)

In a first phase the UMTS Radio Access Network UTRAN would be developed andassociated with an evolution of the GSM core network, including a TCP/IP component.. 8.2.1.4 The ETSI Board Mee

Chapter 8: The UMTS

Standardisation Work in ETSI

Section 1: The Initial Work (up to Spring 1996)

Philippe Dupuis1

8.1.1 Introduction

Some experts started working on, or maybe we should say dreaming about, third generationmobile communications in the mid-1980s, even before second generation mobile commu-nications took shape in GSM UMTS was invented then It was initially just a vague concept,something which had to one day take over from GSM and therefore had to be superior toGSM There was also a view that the capacity of GSM would be exhausted just after a fewyears and that UMTS should thus follow very quickly This was not a workable proposal asthe industry could not throw away GSM developments and adopt a new system so rapidly.This initial UMTS concept had to evolve into a workable proposal The main purpose of thissection is to show how this happened

8.1.2 The Genesis of the UMTS Concept

The UMTS concept has emerged from the R&D work funded by the CEC under the RACEprogram In parallel at the ITU and particularly in the Comite´ Consultatif International Radio(CCIR) interest emerged for the elaboration of a single world standard for public mobilecommunications This rapidly focused on next generation, i.e digital solutions It is inter-esting to recall the various activities which took place in these two areas

8.1.2.1 The RACE Projects

The RACE programme was initiated by the CEC to fund R&D in the area of tions It consisted of a collection of precompetitive co-operative R&D projects associatingcompanies, laboratories and universities belonging to several countries of the Europeancommunities It generally addressed broadband communications Initially the goal was calledB-ISDN but later it became Integrated Broadband Communications (IBC) There was a

telecommunica-1 The views expressed in this section are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of his affiliation entity.

mobile component which included Mobile Broadband System (MBS) and an advanced digitalcellular system called UMTS, limited to about 2 Mb/s.

A first RACE project on future mobile systems had been awarded around 1987 The projectleader was Philips Research in Cambridge.2

It seems strange a posteriori that, at the very time that the GSM group was working on thespecification of a digital cellular system, work could start independently Many reasons canexplain or justify this First the RACE project was led by manufacturers while GSM was aninitiative of the traditional telecom operators Some probably thought that RACE would limititself to supplementing and supporting the work on GSM with some basic research But othershad certainly in mind the design of a system which would compete with GSM

In 1989 RACE 1043, a full phase 1 RACE project, was launched to continue the workundertaken by the first project It covered the same area with a more important budget and intotal 26 partners from 13 countries It is probably within RACE 1043 that the expressionUMTS was used for the first time In 1990 I chaired the Mobile Expert Group of ETSI whosetask was to review activities in the sector of mobile telecommunications I remember that wehad a tense meeting with a representative of RACE 1043, Ed Candy of Philips Research TheGSM and UMTS visions obviously belonged to different worlds On ETSI’s side the currentassumptions were that UMTS was to be considered as third generation, emerge around 1996and that standardisation activities had to be carried out within ETSI, or within CCIR if onewas aiming at a world standard

In 1992 RACE phase 2 was launched to cover the 1992–1996 time frame, including a

‘‘mobile project line’’, a set of projects in the area of mobile communications The budget ofthis mobile project line was quite impressive totalling thousands of man £ months of effort

At this time I was involved in a small group whose task was to establish the overall relevance

of RACE 2 To this end I made sure that there was a clear understanding of the features bywhich UMTS would differentiate from GSM Among these features were an enhanced speechquality, the integration of IN concepts, multimedia services, increased capacity to allow theemergence of a mass market, etc Nobody was expecting at this time that GSM phase 2 1would eventually meet some of these requirements We also clearly stated that the objective

of the RACE projects was not to produce a full specification of UMTS, only possibly toprovide an input to the standardisation group in ETSI

Despite this the RACE office in the CEC, headed by Roland Hueber, had in mind to control

or at least play a major role in the process that would bring UMTS to the market This wasindeed their last opportunity to influence the future of the telecommunication industry as theIntegrated Broadband Communications were then being eclipsed by the dominance of theInternet In 1995 Roland Hueber invited representatives of the mobile industry, operators, andmanufacturers to a meeting in Brussels, the purpose of which was to propose to set up anUMTS Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) quite similar to the GSM MoU This MoUwould have defined the conditions of the introduction of UMTS in Europe In the openingspeech Roland Hueber, the head of the RACE office made several agressive statements Inparticular he said that the time taken to bring GSM to the market had been unduly long Theproposal to set up a MoU with the support the CEC was not well received by the audience Atthat time it was generally understood that UMTS could only come as an evolution of GSM.The GSM MoU had also started activities on third generation and one tended to assume that a

2 At the European Seminar on Mobile Radio Communications (Brussels, 7–8 April 1987), already mentioned in Chapter 2, a presentation on the project was made by R Gibson of Philips Research.

possible UMTS MoU would have to be brought under the same roof as the GSM MoU.Finally, as a compromise, the meeting eventually agreed to create an UMTS Task Force toinvestigate the matter further The work of this Task Force is reported in Chapter 7 section 3.

In the meantime CEC funded R&D projects continued within the framework of the ACTSprogramme.3

8.1.2.2 ITU, FPLMTS and IMT200

In the mid-1980s, even before producing results, the work of the GSM had attracted theattention of observers outside of Europe That the Europeans had undertaken to develop acommon cellular standard was indeed something unusual At the same time the interest ofinternational roaming had been demonstrated in the NMT system Emerging countries werealso in favour of a unique standard which would stimulate competition between the interna-tional equipment suppliers I remember a high level panel discussion during the openingsession of the ITU’s Asia Telecom 1985 conference in Singapore during which the CEO ofTelecom Singapore made a plea in this direction Richard Butler, the Secretary General ofITU, said his organisation would be ready to work in this area but the representatives of BellLabs and NTT both stated that the cellular market was growing so quickly that it was notpossible to lose time on developing an international standard Initiatives in ITU indeed camefrom the working level in CCIR A working party was set up which was successively calledCCIR TG 8/1, CCIR IWP 8/13, and eventually ITU-R TG 8/1 It was chaired by MikeCallendar of BC Tel in Canada For many years Mike Callendar was the apostle of a singleworld-wide next generation mobile standard The working party invented an unpronounce-able acronym FPLMTS (Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication System) which laterwas replaced by IMT 2000.4In the mean time a World Administrative Radio Conference in

1992 had designated frequencies around 2000 MHz to be used by a future world mobiletelecommunication system I remember several discussions with Mike Callendar in the early1990s He had been impressed by the work done in the GSM Permanent Nucleus, or later inPT12, and would have liked to see the same arrangements in ITU But at the same time peopleexpressed doubts on the capability of ITU to agree on a single standard and produce a fullspecification One started then to mention a ‘‘family’’ of standards, the IMT 2000 family, ofwhich UMTS would be the European component

8.1.3 The Early Work in SMG

As explained earlier, ETSI’s Mobile Expert Group in 1990 had reviewed the whole area ofmobile telecommunications On UMTS the report recommended that ETSI set up a technicalcommittee in charge of UMTS standardisation It took some time before ETSI acted on thisrecommendation5 and it was eventually decided in 1991 that the terms of reference oftechnical committee GSM would be extended to include UMTS standardisation As reportedearlier the name of the committee was then changed and became SMG Not everybody in

3 TDoc SMG 487/94: preliminary information on ACTS.

4 TDoc SMG 306/94: developing a roadmap to FPLMTS (ITU).

5 The main reason why the Mobile Expert Group study had been undertaken was to decide whether ETSI should work on the development of the DCS 1800 specifications although at this time only the UK had the intention of building 1800 MHz All the other issues addressed in the report were considered less urgent.

ETSI was happy about this decision Some would have preferred responsibility for UMTS to

be given to technical committee Radio Equipment and Systems (RES) who dealt with radiospecifications in general, or to a new committee

However, putting GSM and UMTS under the same roof made sense First it ensured thatthe experience acquired on GSM would more surely benefit UMTS But more important evenwas the fact that SMG would be in a position to determine the relative positioning of GSMand UMTS both in terms of features and timing

But in 1992 SMG had still a lot to do on GSM which was just starting commercialoperation Not much time could be spared in plenary meetings to discuss UMTS An easysolution was adopted which was to delegate UMTS matters to a new subcommittee, SMG 5.SMG 5 was chaired by Stein Hansen of Norway in 1992–1993 and Juha Rapeli fromFinland in 1993–1996 SMG5 meetings attracted representatives of the RACE projects, aswell as from the research departments of operators or manufacturers Members of this UMTScommunity, as we may call it, were quite different from those of the GSM community whowere closer to operational matters Often companies sent junior staff or even beginners tothese meetings As the chairman of SMG I regret that we did not succeed in achieving theunification of these two populations

As a consequence, the presentation of the SMG 5 report, usually on the last day of the SMGplenary meeting, did not generate a huge interest from the SMG participants In such condi-tions SMG 5 tended to consider itself as an independent body Quite often we had to remindthem that some liaisons with ETSI had to be channelled via SMG They also would have liked

to have an independent project team rather than using the services of PT12 Another argumentrevolved around the fact that they had created subgroups to deal with services, radio aspects,etc while some felt that in most cases the expertise should be sought in the other subcom-mittees particularly SMG 1–3

SMG 5 had also the task of attempting to unify the views of European participants in theITU meetings on FPLMTS/IMT 2000 or in some cases to elaborate a European input to suchmeetings

SMG 5 undertook to issue framework documents defining the objectives or requirementsfor the various aspects of UMTS.6The first versions of such documents were approved bySMG in 1993 Through these documents the same vision of UMTS still emerged: an entirelynew system based on the GSM model but different which would one day replace GSM

No one of those who had an experience in operational matters in SMG could imagine howsuch a scenario could work As a result in 1995 SMG had not yet a clear vision of theintroduction of third generation mobile services Nor had the GSM MoU Association whohad undertaken to study the matter (see Chapter 6, paragraph 2.6) This was going to comefrom another ETSI initiative

8.1.4 The Global Multimedia Mobility Concept

In 1995 ETSI created a Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) At the November 1995Technical Assembly of ETSI, PAC suggested that a small expert group make proposals on themigration from the second to the third generation of personal communication systems Thisgroup was chaired by Bernard Depouilly of Alcatel and worked very actively SMG wasrepresented by Gunnar Sandegren of Ericsson

6 TDoc SMG 477/93: UMTS work programme.

At the beginning of 1996 a draft report was circulated which was formulating a concept, orvision, called Global Multimedia Mobility (GMM).7 It was based on the postulate thatdifferent access networks and core networks can be associated in a flexible manner, provided

a suitable interface specification exists Among ‘‘core networks’’ the report identified ISDN,GSM, B-ISDN, ATM, TCP/IP SMG was well prepared to accept this vision having specifiedthe A-interface at the junction of the GSM radio access network and the GSM core networkand undertaken to develop for GPRS an interface between the GSM radio access network andTCP/IP based networks

Quite concretely this concept enabled the visualisation of the following step by stepapproach to UMTS

In a first phase the UMTS Radio Access Network (UTRAN) would be developed andassociated with an evolution of the GSM core network, including a TCP/IP component Thisapproach could be implemented in both new and pre-existing networks, thus allowing thebuilding of new UMTS networks as well upgrading pre-existing GSM networks whereUTRAN could be introduced progressively to boost capacity and/or functionality UTRANwould of course interwork directly with Internet Protocol (IP) networks, a capability thatGSM networks were to acquire already with the introduction of the General Packet RadioService (GPRS)

In a second phase a UMTS core network could be specified to focus mostly on broadbandmultimedia services and applications

With this approach the introduction of UMTS became a viable proposal It indeedpreserved the investments made by manufacturers and operators in the GSM technologywhile moving forward in the area of both radio technology and networking concepts, aswell as eventually making multimedia services available in the most cost effective way.The GMM concept thus played an important role in the re-orientation of the work towardsrealistic objectives and scenarios even if it was not favourably received in the GA (seeChapter 8, Section 2)

7 TDoc SMG 194/96: global multimedia mobility (ETSI/TA24(96)45).

Chapter 8: The UMTS

Standardisation Work in ETSI

Section 2: The Creation of the UMTS Foundations in ETSI from April 1996 to February 1999

Friedhelm Hillebrand1

The foundations of UMTS were created in ETSI, mainly in the Technical Committee SMG,during the period from 1996 to 1998 This standardisation work had four major phases, whichare treated in the first four paragraphs of this section:

† UMTS priorities and work distribution: in 1996 (see paragraph 8.2.1)

† The UMTS strategy consensus: from April 1996 to February 1997 (see paragraph 8.2.2)

† Basic concepts of the UMTS standard: from March 1997 to March 1998 (see paragraph8.2.3)

† UMTS reports and raw specifications: from February 1998 to February 1999 (see graph 8.2.4)

para-Then the UMTS work was transferred to the Third Generation Partnership Project in early1999

The rest of this section treats legal and organisational issues and conclusions:

† IPR issues (see paragraph 8.2.5)

† The initiation of 3GPP, the new global organisation (see paragraph 8.2.6)

† The work in ETSI complementing the 3GPP work (see paragraph 8.2.7)

† Conclusions (see paragraph 8.2.8)

This whole section treats the development from April 1996 to the end of 1998 from anSMG plenary perspective I was chairman of SMG during this period The report is focussed

on the SMG related aspects: strategy and decisions The report follows closely the eventsvisible at the SMG plenary and points frequently to reference documents, which can be found

on the attached CD-ROM More information about the technical work can be found inChapters 10–20

1 The views expressed in this section are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of his affiliation entity.

8.2.1 The Agreement on the UMTS Priorities and UMTS Work

Distribution in ETSI in 1996

8.2.1.1 The Global Multimedia Mobility Report (GMM Report)

The ‘‘Global Multimedia Mobility’’ report2was produced by ETSI’s Programme AdvisoryCommittee as described in Chapter 8, Section 1, paragraph 4 It describes ‘‘a standardisationframework for multimedia mobility in the information society’’ It reviewed medium- tolong-term trends in the telecommunication environment and technology It recognised thevariety of technologies and competition also in network operation It proposed a frameworkarchitecture and described four domains: terminal equipment, access network, core transportnetwork and application services The report states explicitly that there is and will be amultiplicity of core networks and it recognises competition as a key element The essencefor the ongoing standardisation work is in the part ‘‘Conclusions and Recommendations’’

8.2.1.2 Reactions by ETSI Members and Responses of the ETSI Technical Bodies

The elaboration of the GMM report triggered a controversial debate in ETSI about a nisation of UMTS work One manufacturer launched an initiative to take UMTS out ofTechnical Committee SMG and to create a new organisation in ETSI in June 1996.3All technical committees in ETSI were invited to comment on the draft report SMG#19(June 1996) received a report and proposal by Gunnar Sandegren, the SMG vice-chairman,who had represented SMG in the Program Advisory Committee.4SMG elaborated and agreed

reorga-on a full set of comments reorga-on the creorga-onclusireorga-ons and recommendatireorga-ons for the ETSI GeneralAssembly.5SMG endorsed the conclusions and recommendations in principle and offered tobear the responsibility for specifying the radio access network for UMTS SMG saw no needfor a (superior) co-ordination committee Instead SMG proposed to implement technical co-ordination by bilateral mechanisms between the technical bodies involved

In a second General Assembly contribution6SMG offered to keep the responsibility for thestandardisation of all UMTS services and particularly that of the UMTS radio access network.SMG offered to serve in these areas the interest of the entire ETSI community The mainreasons given were:

† To maintain Europe’s leading position in mobile communication by building UMTS onthe footprint of GSM

† Competence for carrying out such work can be found in SMG only

† GSM is the system best aligned to the GMM

† Technical Committee SMG has developed a working methodology for the handling ofevolving complexity in a changing environment

It should be noted that Technical Committee SMG was the only technical body, who fullyconsidered the GMM report and produced a written response to the General Assembly

2 GMM Report Part A: Executive Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations in SMG 194/96 and ETSI/ GA26(96)7.

3 Meeting of the Interim Board.

4 SMG 517/96.

5 SMG 560/96 (revision of 554 and 539) (General Assembly #26 Temporary Document 16).

6 SMG 549/96 (Annex 2 in General Assembly #26 Temporary Document 15).

8.2.1.3 The Decisions on the GMM Report in the ETSI General Assembly 26 in June 1996

The General Assembly received several input documents and had an intensive debate Thereport was noted The range of subjects was very wide, therefore an approval was notpossible Regarding the conclusions and recommendations the following agreements werereached:

1 The modular architecture framework for all services and a multiplicity of networks wasendorsed in principle (Conclusions 1 and 2)

2 Recommendation 1 to refine the GMM architecture and to establish or identify a group for

it was referred back to the ETSI Board

3 Conclusion 3 and Recommendation 2 regarding the provision of harmonised spectrumwere seen as not relevant in ETSI

4 The promotion of the GMM concept to other standardisation organisations was agreed(Conclusion 4 and Recommendation 3)

5 Conclusion 5, that the UMTS core network should be based on the evolving existing corenetwork standards (e.g GSM or ISDN) was referred back to the ETSI Board AlsoRecommendation 4B to make sure that the evolving core network standards complywith the GMM framework was referred back to the ETSI Board

6 It was endorsed, that it is an ETSI priority to develop the radio access network for UMTS(Recommendation 4)

This means that the General Assembly saw the framework architecture principles as usefuland confirmed the priority to develop the UMTS radio access network All other issues werereferred back to the ETSI Board This outcome showed that no ETSI consensus in key areashad been reached during the elaboration of the report

8.2.1.4 The ETSI Board Meeting #1 in August 1996

The Board agreed additional guidance mainly regarding the UMTS network aspects, whichwas added to the Executive Summary of the GMM Report:

When continuing the work on the ‘GMM standardisation framework’, it must be taken intoconsideration that UMTS services require standards for new terminals, a new access networkandenhanced or new network capabilities in existing core transport networks, e.g GSM andnarrowband ISDN There will be a planned evolution path from existing GSM and narrowbandISDN networks to support UMTS and other future mobile services (Annex E to the MeetingReport)

In addition the creation of a ‘‘GMM co-ordination group’’ was initiated This group should

SMG terms of reference were elaborated and agreed in due course by the SMG#20 in October

1996 and approved by the Board#2 in October 1996.8

8.2.1.5 Bilateral Agreements between Technical Committees NA and SMG

In bilateral talks between delegations of Technical Committee NA (network aspects) andTechnical Committee SMG, Technical Committee NA confirmed that they saw the UMTScore network evolution based on ISDN as their responsibility Technical Committee SMGinvited NA1 (services) to participate in the SMG1 work on UMTS services NA1 sentregularly a liaison person SMG offered NA a subcontract in order to fulfil their additionalrequirements on the UMTS radio access network This subcontract was not elaboratedfurther SMG invited NA regularly to provide their additional requirements But it turnedout that there were no additional needs for the use of the UMTS radio access in a ISDN basedcore network

8.2.1.6 Conclusions on a Core Network Evolution and Work Distribution

At the end of a cumbersome process an agreement within ETSI on strategic targets wasreached in October 1996, which is fully reflected in the revised Technical CommitteeSMG terms of reference:

1 Specification of all UMTS services aspects in Technical Committee SMG with the widestpossible participation;

2 Specification of one new UMTS radio access network in Technical Committee SMG;

3 Specification of the GSM core network evolution for UMTS in Technical CommitteeSMG;

4 Specification of the core ISDN core network evolution for UMTS in Technical CommitteeNA;

5 A loose co-ordination by the GMM Co-ordination Group with participation from allinvolved groups

Technical Committee NA and other forces coming from the ‘‘fixed network world’’ tried tochange this agreement in 1997 and to establish a completely new organisation for UMTS,which had meant a disbanding of SMG and the distribution of all GSM and UMTS work onseveral other new bodies (see e.g ETSI Board#7 and #8 Reports) But these initiatives did notlead to a success since they did not gain sufficient support in ETSI

In addition even the activities on the ISDN based core network evolution did not lead tospecifications for a services’ opening in 2002, since the community interested in this matterdid not find sufficient momentum and support from their membership

8.2.2 The Strategy Consensus for UMTS Achieved from April 1996 to February 1997 (SMG#19–#21)

The original UMTS concept was developed in the framework of the RACE program in 1986

It described UMTS as ‘‘mobile access to broadband ISDN’’ This concept was transformedinto a more market-oriented ‘‘New UMTS’’ strategy based on the agreements reached in the

8 SMG revised terms of reference in SMG 662/96.

UMTS Task Force Report, and the results of the UMTS Forum in close co-operation with theGSM Association in 1996/7 The main elements of the ‘‘New UMTS’’ are:

† Services’ innovation (e.g VHE concept)

† Continuity for GSM services and evolution from GSM

† High performance interworking with the Internet

The process to take back the lead and to build an initial consensus on the UMTS strategyneeded three SMG plenary meetings: SMG#19 in June 1996, SMG#20 in October 1996 andSMG#21 in February 1997 Sections 2.1–2.3 describe this process in chronological order.They try to highlight the main aspects of this difficult transition and re-orientation process.Section 2.4 summarises the results

8.2.2.1 The Initiative on UMTS taken back by SMG at SMG#19 in June 1996 at Kista,Sweden

The UMTS work had been dealt with in the meetings before June 1996 by the sub-groupSMG5, a community working relatively independently from the rest of SMG as described inChapter 8, Section 1, paragraph 3 The SMG plenary was so loaded with GSM work that littletime was left for UMTS The biggest problem was the lack of a clear vision and strategy forthird generation mobile services as identified in Chapter 8, Section 1, paragraph 3

In spring 1996 many SMG members realised that it was of strategic importance to dealproperly at the SMG plenary with UMTS When I came into office as chairman I changed theformat of the SMG plenary, in order to gain sufficient time for UMTS The time for GSM wasshortened by enabling a new change request procedure which delegated decision power to thesubgroups and saved plenary time.9 In addition the treatment of controversial items wasreorganised.10This allowed a new plenary format:11GSM was treated from Monday morning

to Wednesday noon, UMTS from Wednesday noon to Thursday evening Friday was reservedfor postponed controversial issues, which could not be resolved earlier in the week Smallteams were charged to seek a solution for these postponed controversial items

SMG received a presentation of the UMTS Task Force report.12A full working relationshipwas established with the UMTS Forum and its working groups I invited the chairmen topresent their ideas to the SMG#19 and to all following plenaries I was offered a seat in theForum’s Steering Group A co-operation agreement13between ETSI and the UMTS Forumwas endorsed by SMG and approved by the ETSI Board The overlap in work was removed.The activities of SMG on spectrum issues (in SMG5 and in the SMG spectrum task force)were closed and a close liaison to the Forum’s Spectrum Aspects Group established.14Ibecame the official ETI representative in the Steering Group of the UMTS Forum, in order

to ensure a close co-operation between the UMTS Forum and ETSI SMG

The chairman of SMG5 responsible for UMTS covered a wide range of subjects which hadbeen treated by SMG5 in his status report He presented several ETSI telecommunicationreports and ETSI telecommunication specifications for approval: vocabulary, introduction,

9 See Chapter 5, Section 2, paragraph 5.2.4.5

10 See Chapter 5, Section 2, paragraph 5.2.4.1

security principles, USIM The plenary felt uneasy in approving these documents, since theplenary had not reached an earlier agreement on strategic questions, in addition some docu-ments were seen as too detailed and oriented too much towards the old UMTS philosophywhich considered UMTS as an access network providing access to broadband ISDN, comple-tely separated from GSM On the other hand there was the intention to honour the work ofSMG5 Therefore these documents were approved for publication.

SMG5 requested guidance on the relationship between UMTS and FPLMTS A list ofquestions15was asked by SMG5 The SMG5 chairman had asked SMG#18 (April19 96)16onpositions regarding ITU without receiving an answer It was stated and agreed that SMGshould influence the ITU FPLMTS17work But SMG had no relationship with ITU groups Itwas also not possible to agree on a way forward at SMG#19 But it was agreed to come back

to these issues in the following plenary and also to discuss relevant inputs to the ITU in thatmeeting.18

SMG had shifted the work of the working groups reporting to SMG5 on services, radio andnetwork aspects to the ‘‘normal’’ SMG subgroups responsible for GSM work: SMG1, 2 and 3and re-focussed SMG5 into a co-ordinating role.19SMG#19 received the first SMG1, 2 and 3reports on UMTS Some other subgroups expressed interest in UMTS work (security, data,testing)

In addition SMG#19 had a full debate on the GMM report and reached conclusions on thestrategic orientation of UMTS as described in paragraph 1.2

During SMG#19 the SMG plenary managed to win back the initiative on UMTS strategy.Initial results were reached and a way forward became visible In the parallel activities in theETSI General Assembly and Board (see paragraph 1) the responsibility of SMG for theleading role in UMTS was defended But it was clear to me that this lead role needed to

be justified by rapid progress with demonstrable results

8.2.2.2 The UMTS Strategy Debate at SMG#20 in October 199 96 at Sophia Antipolis

8.2.2.2.1 Strategic Agreements

The UMTS key features20and proposals to seek a focus on wideband and multimediaservices21were discussed The initial conclusions were that the UMTS servicessupport thefull range of applications from narrowband to wideband (2 Mbit/s as a target) services andthat multimedia services need a high bitrate and a high degree of flexibility (see MeetingReport 7.6.3) This was the first strategic agreement in SMG on the orientation of the UMTSservices It is a ‘‘soft’’ conclusion, but it provides direction Standardisation is all aboutconsensus building! Here is the beginning of the UMTS services consensus

FPLMTS ¼ Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication System, a term replaced later by IMT-2000.

18 The situation regarding ETSI ITU contributions was difficult Previously the Technical Assembly would have approved ETSI contributions The ETSI reform had delegated all technical matters to the technical bodies This would implicitly mean that technical committees could approve ETSI contributions to the ITU But several delegates were reluctant to do this since no explicit rules existed for this case.

19 See new SMG5 terms of reference approved by SMG#18 in April 1996 in SMG 231/96.

20 SMG 725/96.

21 SMG 718/96, 729/96, 727/96.

A meeting on the focus of UMTS work had been held and results were noted by SMG#20.22The first firm agreements on UMTS phases and milestones were triggered by a contribution ofMannesmann, Orange, E Plus, Vodafone and DeTeMobil It contained principles, a phasesdefinition, and a UMTS development schedule on key requirements for the radio interface.This document had been prepared to provide strategic guidance to the UMTS standardisationwork.23It was aligned with the results of the UMTS Task Force and the Third GenerationInterest Group (3GIG) of the GSM MoU Group It was presented to the GSM MoU plenary indue course The paper presents a UMTS concept which is oriented to market needs as seen bynetwork operators It proposes a modular approach and a phases and milestones concept.SMG drew some firm conclusions from it The major elements were:24

† The UMTS development should follow a phased approach

† UMTS should have a modular approach (separation of access and core network)

† UMTS phase 1 uses a new BSS and an evolved GSM core network and should be tional by 2002

opera-† UMTS phase 2 (with a new core network) around 2005

† UMTS concept (basic studies including selection of the radio interface) during 1996–1997

† UMTS detailed standardisation in 1998-1999

These key milestones became the polar star of the future UMTS work program What iseven more remarkable, they were achieved!

8.2.2.2.2 Results of the SMG Subgroups

A number of documents elaborated by SMG5 were presented for information They coveredareas like work program, framework of network requirements, overall radio requirements,framework for the telecommunication management, satellite integration SMG5 providedinformation about the ITU work and contributions sent to the ITU by SMG5 Several othercontributions to the ITU were endorsed

The first specification on services principles presented by SMG1 was approved

The work plan for the access technology selection25proposed by SMG2 was endorsed Apaper on radio selection procedures was presented for information

It was decided to charge the SMG3 System Architecture Group (the later SMG12) withUMTS network architecture aspects in addition to GSM architecture The task was previouslytaken care of by SMG5 This transfer, allowed the exploitation of the GSM know-how forUMTS

8.2.2.3 The Agreement on the Strategy for the Relationship between FPLMTS and UMTSand the UTRA Definition Procedure Reached at SMG#21 in February 1997 in Paris

SMG#21 received reports from the chairmen of the UMTS Forum and the Third GenerationInterest Group (3GIG) of the GSM MoU Group

22 SMG 641/96.

23 SMG 682/96 I had produced the first draft and circulated it to the mentioned operators.

24 See Meeting Report of SMG#20 in the CD ROM folder B1.

25 SMG 601/96, Annex II.

8.2.2.3.1 Private Cordless Systems

A discussion on the impact of private and cordless systems took place based on an input of theUMTS Forum It was referred to SMG1 and 2 for further study This was a difficult subject for

a technical committee focussed on a public cellular system

8.2.2.3.2 Strategy for the Relationship between FPLMTS and UMTS and Process forContributions to the ITU

The relationship between UMTS and FPLMTS and also the roles of ETSI and the ITU inthese programs were hot potatoes The role of the ITU was indispensable for several funda-mental aspects such as free circulation, spectrum harmonisation, etc It was however clear tomost participants that the ITU would not be able to reach a decision on one radio solution due

to the diverging interest of the members There were also serious doubts, whether ITU would

be able to deliver the necessary detailed specification for services opening and system tion on time On the other hand a recognition by the ITU was necessary for access to themarket and spectrum in many countries

evolu-After the ETSI reform 1995/1996 no explicit procedures for ETSI contributions to the ITUexisted any more Before the reform they had to be endorsed by the Technical Assembly Thisbody had been disbanded and the decisions on all technical matters had been allocated to thetechnical bodies But the technical committees had not been explicitly authorised to submitcontributions on behalf of ETSI The ETSI Board had no decision competence in thesematters But there were people who were reluctant to endorse technical contributions tothe ITU in a technical committee and to submit them with the source ‘‘ETSI’’

Therefore, both was needed: a strategy for the relationship between FPLMTS and UMTSand the roles of the ITU and ETSI and a process for contributions to the ITU

The Strategy for the Relationship between FPLMTS and UMTS

Based on the trilateral discussions of the European Union, US and Japan on ‘‘FutureAdvanced Mobile Universal Systems (FAMOUS)’’,26I drafted a strategy paper on ‘‘ThirdGeneration Standardisation Policy: The Role of the ITU and ETSI, the Relationship betweenFPLMTS and UMTS’’ and agreed it with key persons in the Technical Committee SMG.27The paper was submitted in their names and my name It described the interest of the US,Japan and Europe It summarised the FAMOUS agreements of May 1995 on the standardisa-tion of the third generation, which had not been implemented but instead had fallen into a

‘‘sleep mode’’ The FAMOUS recommendations of May 1995 recognised the different marketneeds in different regions They called for:

† Evolution paths from all second generation systems

† Global standards should address the kernel of services

† Regional standardisation organisations should specify the details

The contribution proposes to recognise that there will be several different FPLMTSsystems Efforts should be made to enable roaming These systems should be seen as anFPLMTS family of systems The paper identifies the first family members

26 Report on FAMOUS, see Chapter 7, Section 3.

27 G Sandegren (SMG vice-chairman), J Rapeli (SMG5 chairman), A Bergmann (PT SMG leader) and A Samukic (UMTS program manager), see SMG 63/97.

A new focus for the ITU work was proposed It included the following: recognise familymembers, facilitate roaming between family members, framework standardisation, seekcommonalties between members, free circulation, spectrum issues.

A proposal for the work focus of a ‘‘regional’’ standardisation organisation like ETSI wasmade It included the following: standardisation of UMTS, contributions on frameworkstandardisation and roaming between family members to the ITU, submission of an air-interface candidate, which meets or exceeds the essential ITU requirements as a member

of the FPLMTS family

Regarding the relationship between FPLMTS and UMTS, it was proposed that ETSIstandardises UMTS as a true third generation system with evolution paths from GSM andISDN.28UMTS should be designed and planned as an FPLMTS family member and theUMTS radio interface should be submitted as a candidate to the ITU for approval as onemember of the FPLMTS family

The document was discussed intensively There were questions whether ETSI could

‘‘prescribe’’ what the ITU should do The response was that the document ‘‘proposes’’elements for discussion But a consensus could be reached on the principles The documentwas updated and approved as an SMG strategy document.29It was agreed to distribute thedocument widely to the ETSI Board, UMTS Forum, GSM MoU Group, ANSI T1P1, ITU lowlevel groups, etc for information It was slightly revised at SMG#22 The substance wassubmitted to the ITU.30 After an intensive discussion with other regional standardisationorganisations, the ITU accepted an FPLMTS family of systems (later called the IMT-2000family of systems) as a realistic and implementable approach.31A new orientation was given

to the international co-operation between ITU, ANSI T1, TIA, ARIB and TTC by the

IMT-2000 family of systems concept It proposes a viable way forward:

† Acknowledgement that one standard for IMT-2000 is not acceptable for the differentmarket needs and business interests

† Modular framework as a target

† Search for as much commonalties as possible in functions, modules, etc

This concept ended the strong confrontation between the different communities of interestand opened the way to a reasonable and successful co-operation between the previouslyhostile parties It enabled the recognition of several radio technologies by the ITU A substan-tial harmonisation of third generation systems was achieved

Process for the Approval of Contributions to the ITU

It was not possible to agree on a process to submit contributions to the ITU which wereapproved by SMG with the source ‘‘ETSI’’ Since it was urgent to have a process available,SMG avoided the discussion on principles in ETSI by seeking a pragmatic procedure In 1996SMG approved contributions that had been submitted in the name of one or several ITUmember companies This was felt to be inadequate, since it did not show the level of supportreached in ETSI Therefore, a new form was developed: the document was submitted by one

or several ITU member companies, e.g ‘‘member xyz in the name of ETSI SMG’’ This formwas used frequently in the following years, e.g for the submission of the UMTS radio access

28 ISDN was mentioned in line with the ETSI agreements on UMTS priorities, see paragraph 8.2.1 above.

29 SMG 290/97.

30 These formal contributions were elaborated in due course and endorsed by SMG#22bis in August 1997.

31 The first agreement in the ITU was reached in the SG11 Rapporteur’s meeting in June 1997.

It showed clearly to the ITU, that a consensus of the technical committee responsible forUMTS backed such a document.

8.2.2.3.3 Relations with Japanese Standardisation Organisations

G Sandegren of Ericsson proposed a co-operation with the Japan FPLMTS activities ing an opening of the ETSI SMG work for Japanese and ANSI T1P1 participation andcontributions.32An ad hoc group with participation from France Telecom, Alcatel, Nortel,Siemens and others drafted a mandate for a mission of the SMG chairman to Japan in March

includ-1997 with the following tasks:

† to present and discuss the ETSI vision based on the SMG strategy paper FPLMTS/UMTS(see paragraph 2.3.2);

† to invite ARIB/TTC to present their views in ETSI;

† to report back on the perceived willingness of Japanese representatives

The proposed mandate was approved by SMG#21.33This mission was approved by theETSI Board#5 in February 1997, since this initiative opened a new external relationship.This mission lead to a close co-operation with the Japanese standardisation organisations(for details see paragraph 3.6) For the UMTS strategy this initiative meant that a solutionwould be sought, which included Japan This was an important opening towards a fullyglobally applicable solution

8.2.2.3.4 UMTS Radio Aspects

SMG#21 in February 1997 provided guidance on strategic aspects of the UMTS TerrestrialRadio Access (UTRA):

† SMG2 shall focus on the UMTS UTRA, this means not considering satellite or tical requirements;

aeronau-† SMG2 shall consider wireless fixed access only in so far as this does not add additionalcomplexity or performance degradation;

† UTRA shall meet the essential ITU requirements;

† SMG confirmed 384 kbit/s as a requirement for the pedestrian environment

SMG approved the ‘‘UTRA definition procedure and time schedule’’.34The main elementswere:

† UTRA definition procedure instead of a selection procedure, i.e co-operation from thebeginning instead of competition, which leads to large confrontations

† Every company can contribute to every aspect of every proposed solution

† Planned agreement on groupings at SMG#22 in June 1997

† Planned selection of one UTRA concept at SMG#24 in December 1997

† Submission of UTRA to the ITU as an FPLMTS candidate

32 SMG 222/97.

33 SMG 240/97.

34 SMG 163/97 and 164/97 Early versions of these documents had been prepared in two meetings as an input to SMG by a subset of the SMG steering group: N.P.S Andersen the SMG2 chairman and me as SMG chairman, G.Sandegren and A Maloberti the SMG vice-chairmen and supported by A Bergmann the PT SMG co-ordinator.

† Further elaboration of the selected UTRA concept as a joint activity with contributionsfrom all interested parties in 1998.

It was further agreed not to perform comprehensive hardware validation tests in the publicsphere as it had been done for GSM in 1986 since many aspects can be clarified by simula-tions In addition it was assumed that each contributing company would perform the neces-sary validation tests and report results.35

8.2.2.3.5 The Transfer of UMTS Work from SMG5 to the SMG Plenary and the otherSubgroups

It was agreed to transfer the work on a role model from SMG5 to SMG1 (services) and thework on an architecture reference model from SMG5 to SMG3 (network aspects)

In order to streamline the UMTS work further, to progress the UMTS document ture and work program and to examine the SMG5 mandate an extraordinary meeting ofthe ‘‘SMG Steering Group’’36was held at the request of SMG in March 1997 It agreed on

struc-a revised drstruc-aft work plstruc-an struc-and cstruc-ame to the conclusion to close SMG5 since the work hstruc-adbeen successfully integrated into the other subgroups SMG endorsed this conclusion bycorrespondence

8.2.2.3.6 The Initiation of the UMTS Baseline Document

In order not to ‘‘loose’’ strategic agreements, which were documented in meeting reports,SMG charged me as SMG chairman, A Bergmann the PT SMG leader and A Samukic theUMTS program manager, to produce the ‘‘UMTS Baseline Document UMTS 30.01’’ Thefirst version was submitted to SMG#22 in June 1997.37

It was updated regularly and served as an orientation document during the UMTS work inSMG It was also a valuable reference, to show external groups the agreements reached Thefurther strategy decisions were documented in the meeting reports and saved in the UMTSBaseline Document It evolved substantially over time Every SMG plenary endorsed a newversion.38

8.2.2.3.7 The New UMTS Work Plan and the First Structure of the Permanent OutputDocuments

The new UMTS focus needed a new work plan focussed on the essential work items and anew structure of the permanent output documents It had been drafted by the SMG SteeringGroup (see paragraph 8.2.3.6) and was endorsed by correspondence.39

35 SMG 165/97.

36 SMG chairman, vice-chairmen, subgroup chairmen, PT SMG co-ordinator.

37 SMG 384/97 shows the first version submitted to SMG#22.

38 An early version is in SMG 384/97, the last version is in SMG 112/99.

39 SMG 385/97 shows the version submitted to SMG#22.

8.2.2.4 Conclusion: UMTS Strategy Consensus Reached in the Period from April 1996 toFebruary 1997 bySMG#19–21

8.2.2.4.1 Strategy Consensus on a ‘‘New’’ UMTS Vision

The following agreements in substance were reached:

† Key UMTS characteristics

† Key services aspects (including the evolution from GSM services)

† Key requirements for the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

† Modular system concept:

– Separation of core and access network

– New UMTS radio system

– GSM core network evolution

† Strategy on the relation between FPLMTS and UMTS

The following work and organisation agreements were reached:

† Creation of the UMTS baseline document to save strategic decisions

† UMTS phases and milestones

† UTRA definition process

† New work plan with new streamlined work item and document structure

† Streamlined organisation: all work in the proven structure for GSM in order to exploit theknow-how and resources and to secure cross-fertilisation

† Work distribution between ETSI and ITU

† Opening towards a co-operation with Japan

These cornerstones formed a firm base for the following work phases

8.2.2.4.2 The Evolution of the UMTS Vision

Table 8.2.1 The evolution of the UMTS vision

UMTS vision in the late 1980s ‘‘New’’ UMTS vision in 1997Core Ideas Integration of all existing and new

services into one new universal network

Focus on innovative services andSupport of GSM servicesPartner networks Broadband-ISDN Intranets and Internet

Introduction Migration from existing networks Evolution from GSM services and

networksRoaming New development, INAP based Evolution of GSM roaming, MAP basedStandardisation FPLMTS as one monolithic standard in

the ITU

IMT-2000 family of systems asframework standard in the ITUUMTS in ETSI for filling of gaps and

option selection

Detailed specifications in ANSI, ETSI,ARIB/TTC

8.2.3 The Elaboration of the Basic Concepts of the UMTS Standard from March 1997 to March 1998 (SMG#22–25)

This work phase achieved – starting from the strategy consensus described in paragraph 8.2.4– the agreement on key services’ concepts, the decision on one UTRA concept and theagreement on several network concepts They formed the basis for the elaboration of theUMTS reports and raw specifications in the following phase (see paragraph 8.2.4)

This paragraph describes selected issues and is structured according to the major subjectareas: 8.2.3.1, work management, 8.2.3.2, services, 8.2.3.3, system architecture, 8.2.3.4,radio, 8.2.3.5, ITU, 8.2.3.6, relations with Japan All other technical subjects not treatedhere are dealt with in Chapters 10–20

During this work phase SMG received regular progress reports and many contributionsfrom the UMTS Forum and the GSM MoU Group’s Third Generation Interest Group (3GIG)

In autumn 1997 the GSM MoU Group agreed to extend the co-operation agreement withETSI to third generation and to provide some funding for the UMTS work of PT SMG

8.2.3.1 UMTS Work Management

The UMTS work plan contained a framework planning Since standardisation is contributiondriven, a work plan of a standardisation group provides visibility to members for areas andtiming of sensible contributions and an invitation to contribute

The second important content of the UMTS work plan is the identification of work items aswell as the definition of the structure of the output documents (technical reports and technicalspecifications)

The UMTS work plan evolved during the period It was updated at every plenary ing40

meet-Another important tool for the work management was the ITU work program This wasdriven by needs of the ITU (see paragraph 8.2.3.5)

8.2.3.2 The Clarification of the UMTS Services Concept

Further clarification on services was reached at SMG#22 in June 1997 by an agreement ondual mode of operation between GSM and UMTS and handover between GSM and UMTS asmandatory features

† GSM only, UMTS only and GSM/UMTS terminals should be allowed

† GSM-UMTS handover is needed in both directions, i.e from and to UMTS or from and toGSM

A UMTS role model was approved by SMG#22.41But it became clear that more study wasneeded, to clarify the model’s validity for private environments, etc Questions were askedabout the role of the UMTS role model After many controversial discussions the deletion ofthe UMTS role model was agreed at SMG#26 in June 1998, since it was seen as being outsidethe scope of standardisation

40 An early version is in SMG 385/97, the last version is in SMG 111/99.

41 SMG 302/97.

In order to make a sensible use of the GSM/UMTS handovers, the services must

‘‘continue’’ between GSM and UMTS In order to secure this, the work item ‘‘ServiceContinuity and Provision of VHE (Virtual Home Environment) via GSM/UMTS’’ wasapproved by SMG#24 in December 1997.42

Another important agreement was the approval of the basic UMTS services philosophy atSMG#24:43UMTS specifies service capabilities, not complete services in order to offer moreflexibility This text was inserted into the UMTS baseline document in order to serve as a

‘‘polar star’’ for the further UMTS services work

In order to progress the UMTS services work a program of technical reports in keyinnovation areas had been agreed But it was very difficult to find the necessary resourcesand contributions for this work This was discussed with concern at SMG#23 in October

1997 This mobilised members’ efforts SMG1 was then able to present some first drafts forinformation to SMG#24 in December 1997 It was possible to complete key documents forapproval by SMG#25 in March 1998:

† Services and services capabilities (UMTS 22.05)

† Terminals and smart card concepts (UMTS 22.07)

† New charging and accounting mechanism (UMTS 22.24)

† Mobile multimedia services including mobile Internet and intranet services (UMTS 22.60)

† Virtual home environment (UMTS 22.70)

† Automatic establishment of roaming relationships (UMTS 22.71)

† Advanced addressing (UMTS 22.75)

8.2.3.3 UMTS System Architecture

8.2.3.3.1 UMTS System Architecture Aspects at SMG#22 and 23

The progress in architecture and network aspects was so slow that SMG#23 in October

1997 charged the SMG chairman to call for an extraordinary SMG Co-ordination Group44meeting in order to plan the work on UMTS network aspects This activity lead to theproposals to define an evolving GSM-UMTS core network and to create a subgroupSMG12 System Architecture

8.2.3.3.2 The Agreement on Evolution in the GSM-UMTS Core Network at SMG#24 inDecember 1997

SMG approved a contribution of the PT SMG co-ordinator45which established the formalrequirement that the UMTS core network is an evolution of the GSM core network and thattherefore the GSM core network should be treated as a subset of the UMTS core networkfrom Release 99 onwards

Another contribution46 called for evolution as a formal requirement, the definition ofguiding principles and a clearer responsibility for the definition of these

42

SMG 1044/97.

43

SMG 1041/97.

44 SMG chairman, subgroup chairmen, PT SMG leader.

45 SMG 882/97 elaborated by Ansgar Bergmann, endorsed by me, submitted with source ‘‘SMG Chairman’’.

46 SMG 1043/97.

Several delegates proposed to establish the System Architecture Subgroup of SMG3 as anautonomous subgroup.

Some progress in substance was reached by the approval of a work item description for anew interface between the network subsystem and the base station system.47

NTT DoCoMo described their plans for migration to the third generation core network atthe request of SMG.48The basic idea is to attach the IMT-2000 radio access network to theGSM-UMTS core network and to provide an interworking function between the PDC corenetwork and the GSM-UMTS core network The project plan foresaw the elaboration ofadditional specifications to the GSM specifications in TTC, the Japanese standardisationorganisation for network aspects

8.2.3.3.3 The Creation of the SMG Subgroup SMG12 Responsible for System

Architecture at SMG#25 in March 1998

SMG3 reported that the progress was very slow The work moved towards a common Release

99 for UMTS and GSM

After thorough discussions between the SMG management and key contributors a proposalwas made to SMG#25 to ‘‘promote’’ the SMG3 subgroup on system architecture into a SMGsubgroup SMG12 with a lead responsibility on system architecture matters.49SMG12 wouldwork under services requirements coming from SMG1 and would make the basic architec-tural decisions which would serve as guidance to the other subgroups SMG endorsed thisproposal This re-organisation was crucial for the future system architecture work

8.2.3.4 UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA)

8.2.3.4.1 The Agreement on the UTRA Requirements and on Five UTRA ConceptsReached atSMG#22 in June 1997

As planned the elaboration and approval of the requirements for UTRA (high level anddetailed) and the selection procedure for the choice of radio transmission technology could

be achieved at SMG#22 in June 1997 It was possible to approve the relevant SMG2 inputdocuments50in this meeting unanimously

It was also planned to agree on a limited number of concepts in this meeting SMG2 hadstudied a wide variety of possible solutions since December 1996 and proposed five conceptgroups for UTRA.51

† Alpha: Wideband CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

† Beta: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

† Gamma: Wideband TDMA

† Delta: Wideband TDMA/CDMA

† Epsilon: ODMA (Opportunity Driven Multiple Access)

These five concept groups were approved by SMG It was stressed that they are open tocontributions by all companies.

During the summer and early autumn the initial technical proposals which showed greatvariations were analysed and integrated into one common technical concept per conceptgroup

8.2.3.4.2 The Agreement on the UTRA Decision Procedure at SMG#23 in October 1997

It was expected that the UTRA decision planned at SMG#24 in December 1997 would behighly controversial, since there was so much interest from different manufacturers involved,and that a consensus would be very difficult to achieve I proposed therefore a procedure toSMG#23 in October 1997 with the following main elements:

† SMG#24 should make all efforts to reach a consensus solution

† SMG#24 may hold an indicative voting using the same procedures as in the decisivevoting

† If no consensus can be achieved atSMG#24, a SMG#24bis meeting should be held on 28–

29 January 1998 in order to vote

† The a.m voting processes should be supervised by ETSI’s legal adviser

This proposal52was approved by SMG

The procedure provided planning security to all interested parties, since it was announcedand agreed well in advance of the decision In addition the process was designed as a process

of ‘‘slowly drying cement’’, which showed the picture clearer over time Moreover, thisprocess allowed all parties to communicate intensively within the agreed schedule.53The process needed to be waterproof against formal complaints to the General Assembly.54Therefore, in order to ensure a high level of neutrality and formal/legal correctness, I hadasked the ETSI legal adviser to supervise it

The indicative voting is performed normally as a show of hands, i.e one vote per ETSImember This may lead to other results than the formal voting procedure, which usesweighted voting.55Therefore, I proposed that the indicative voting at SMG#24 should usethe same procedure as the weighted voting Technical Committee GSM and SMG had usedsuch a voting process for the first time in the election of the second SMG vice-chairmanduring the summer of 1997.56

In order to make the voting on UMTS waterproof, I reviewed the rules in the ETSIDirectives It turned out that there were a number of unclear items and missing rules There-fore, I produced in co-operation with the SMG Co-ordination Group and ETSI’s legal advisor

a document ‘‘Procedure of voting for indication of intent of UTRA in SMG#24’’ Thisdocument explained also the existing rules for the SMG delegates, who were not familiar