Standardization Process
3GPP standardization work is contribution-driven. Companies ("individual members") participate through their membership to a 3GPP Organizational Partner. As of April 2011, 3GPP is composed of more than 370 individual members.
Specification work is done at WG and at TSG level:
- the 3GPP WGs hold several meetings a year. They prepare and discuss change requests against 3GPP specifications. A change request accepted at WG level is called "agreed".
- the 3GPP TSGs hold plenary meetings quarterly. The TSGs can "approve" the change requests that were agreed at WG level. Some specifications are under the direct responsibility of TSGs and therefore, change requests can also be handled at TSG level. The approved change requests are subsequently incorporated in 3GPP specifications.
3GPP follows a three-stage methodology as defined in ITU-T Recommendation I.130:
- stage 1 specifications define the service requirements from the user point of view.
- stage 2 specifications define an architecture to support the service requirements.
- stage 3 specifications define an implementation of the architecture by specifying protocols in details.
Test specifications are sometimes defined as stage 4, as they follow stage 3.
Specifications are grouped into releases. A release consists of a set of internally consistent set of features and specifications.
Timeframes are defined for each release by specifying freezing dates. Once a release is frozen, only essential corrections are allowed (i.e. addition and modifications of functions are forbidden). Freezing dates are defined for each stage.
The 3GPP specifications are transposed into deliverables by the Organizational Partners.
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