What is the 3GPP release for LTE?

3GPP Release 17 3GPP approved the Release 17 package in December 2019 at the same meeting as the freeze for Release 16’s physical layer work. So far, COVID-19 has most affected Release 17, as the majority of the work for this release has happened virtually.

While Release 15, completed back in 2018, laid the foundations for 5G architecture and security, Release 16 was dedicated to additional use cases and therefore many features were added or enhanced .

Rel-16 is phase 2 of the 5G system, which considered the following New Radio improvement: Continuously improve NR competitiveness by implementing; Self-backhaul and integration with access for NR. EMBB sub6GHz enhancement . New multiple access, such as SCMA.

LTE Overview. LTE (Long Term Evolution) or the E-UTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network), introduced in 3GPP R8 , is the access part of the Evolved Packet System (EPS).

Release 16 supports reliable and efficient multicast communication based on HARQ feedback and uses distance as a new dimension at the physical layer, which enables “on-the-fly” multicast groups based on distance and applications. 5G V2X sidelink offers significant benefits for future autonomous driving.

5G can be significantly faster than 4G, delivering up to 20 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) peak data rates and 100+ Megabits-per-second (Mbps) average data rates. 5G has more capacity than 4G.

Early Release 16 Status Release 16 is a major release for the project , not least because it brings our IMT-2020 submission – for an initial full 3GPP 5G system – to its completion (see details below).