What Does 3GPP Release 17 Have in Store for Enterprise Verticals?

The year 2020 will be a decisive year for enterprise adoption of 5G: while the deployment of cellular 4G/LTE connectivity on factory floors, in warehouses, in ports, and on the roads is becoming more and more popular, the adoption of 5G within the enterprise verticals domain is contingent on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) freezing Release 16 in March 2020. By standardizing massive Machine-Type Communication (mMTC) and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) capabilities, this is regarded as the most important 5G related release for enterprises, so far.  Since most enterprises look into new communication technology investment in 2020 or 2021, however, all of them have their contingency plans in place, should 3GPP fail to deliver on time. 

While the industry therefore awaits Release 16, 3GPP is already working on what is coming next: preliminary discussions regarding the content of Release 17 began in December 2019. Most important work items include the standardization of NR-Light, which is designed for use cases in devices like security cameras or wearables (e.g., smart watches), the support of multi-sim mobile phones, and the optimization of small data transfers. All of these are very consumer oriented. From an enterprise vertical point of view, the most important enhancements are improved positioning capabilities (up to the cm level, which would make it even more accurate than GPS). Furthermore, R17 will entail a Study on application support layer for Factories of the Future (FotF) in the 5G network (which was originally planned for Release 16) as well as marginal improvements toward Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) capabilities. Compared to the importance of Release 16, however, the relevance of Release 17 for enterprise verticals is rather limited.

At first sight, the missing relevance of Release 17 for enterprise verticals might seem like it slows down 5G enterprise applications. If you listen to voices from within the industry, however, their central demand of more stability in 3GPP releases resonates.

To understand this demand, it is important to point toward the mismatch between 3GPP release cycles (which are typically 18 months long) and those of other verticals, like industrial manufacturing or the automotive market around connected cars and intelligent transport solutions, where it takes several years to plan and manufacture new car models or new production equipment.

To get an understanding of what all of this means in reality, an exemplary market is connected cars and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): While automotive manufacturers are currently starting to develop car models equipped with 4G/LTE technology—based on 3GPP’s Release 14, referred to as LTE-Vehicle-to-Everything (LTE-V2X), these will enter the market in 2021 or 2022, a four to five year delay between the Release 14 standard being frozen and actual products reaching the market. By this time, 3GPP will already be discussing work items for Release 18 and beyond.

This mismatch in release cycles carries two different implications for enterprise vertical deployment of 5G:

1. By Continuously Barring Enterprises from Investing in the Status Quo Technology, Introducing Too Many Capabilities One after Another Would Effectively Result in Enterprises Not Investing in 5G Deployment at All:

Continuing with the exemplary connected car use case, a car manufacturer will be more reluctant to invest in 5G based New Radio-V2X (NR-V2X) if they know that the technology will be outdated by the time the car will be deployed on the roads. This would ultimately result in network operators and infrastructure vendors missing out on additional revenue opportunities.

1. Increasing the Technology Fragmentation Complicates Deployment and Therefore Raises Requirements toward Issues Related to Backward Compatibility and Interoperability between Different Technologies:

Even though the mismatch in release cycles would bar some enterprises from investing in technology, it inevitably increases the number of different communication technologies within the vertical. In line with previous examples, this means that LTE-V2X-equipped cars will coexist with NR-V2X equipped cars and potentially with a 6G based Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) standard as well. Since backwards compatibility is not guaranteed from a technology point of view, however, each of these car models will need to be equipped with dual chipsets to ensure this interoperability on device level.

To account for this mismatch of release cycles (18 months for a 3GPP release versus various years for production machines, cars, and the like), enterprise verticals need more stability and predictability when it comes to future 3GPP releases. Therefore, 3GPP should seek input from enterprise-specific associations like the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) or the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), not only when it comes to study items, but also when it comes to deciding about the composition of specific releases.

In general, these should follow two guiding principles:

1. Concentrate on a Few Large Steps, Rather Than on Multiple Small Ones: This means bundling all the relevant study items as well as standardization work into bigger releases, rather than one after the other (as soon as they come in).

1. Focus on the Reliability of Release Content Rather Than Unrealistically Tight Timelines: This will provide verticals with the much-needed assurance that capabilities are standardized in the same release as they were announced for. This reliability is extremely important, since there is a whole ecosystem of infrastructure/chipset vendors, network operators, as well as the implementing enterprise involved to successfully deploy 5G within their premises.

The proposed content for Release 17 looks like a step into the right direction when it comes to providing more stability and introducing fewer small advancements. However, 3GPP needs to internalize the fact that facilitating 5G enterprise deployment also requires being more open and transparent toward enterprises to provide them with a reliable release timeline. Most importantly, this also includes future releases focusing more on enterprise-specific applications and needs to align with other automation technologies—i.e., Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or other communication technologies like Ethernet or Wi-Fi—to ensure the best interoperability possible and address issues related to backward compatibility.