3GPP

The European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) pioneered the concept of "Partnership Project" in telecommunications by establishing Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in December 1998. 3GPP was initiated as a global initiative for a single globally common 3G standard. However, different cellular operators in the three largest telecommunication market sectors—America/South Korea, Japan, and Europe—went in their own ways in determining the choice of technology. 3GPP was able to attract a large portion of the cellular market by providing both TDMA- and CDMA-based solutions. It is expected that almost all of the existing GSM-based networks will evolve into 3GPP-based solutions. Some of the IS-136 operators (e.g., ATT Wireless Systems) have also adopted 3GPP-based solutions.
The scope of 3GPP is to produce globally applicable technical specifications and reports for 3G systems based on evolved GSM core networks (CNs) and the radio access technologies (RATs) supported by the CN. For the evolved CN, 3GPP has produced specifications for the general packet radio service (GPRS) system. For the RAT, it has produced specifications for enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) and wideband CDMA (WCDMA) technologies.3GPP is a collaboration agreement that brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies, which are called organizational partners (OPs), for developing specifications for wireless packet networks.
The current OPs are the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses-Japan (ARIB), China Wireless Telecommunication Standards Group (CWTS), ETSI, T1, Telecommunications Technology Association-Korea (TTA), and Telecommunications Technology Committee-Japan (TTC). 3GPP has also included industry fora and consortiums as market representation partners (MRPs). Some of the MRPs are 3G.IP, Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), GSM Association, IPv6 Forum, UMTS Forum, Universal Wireless Communication Consortium (UWCC), and WMF. They provide guidance to the process so the standards meet the market requirements for services, features, and functionality.The functional organization of 3GPP consists of a project coordination group (PCG) that administers the work of technical specifications groups (TSGs). PCG is composed of OPs and MRPs. There are five TSGs, each with an area of responsibility. The TSG core network (TSG CN) is responsible for the specifications of the CN part of the system. Some of the important areas covered by TSG CN are user equipment, CN Layer 3 radio protocols (call control, session management, mobility management), signaling between the CN nodes, interconnection with external networks, O&M (Operation & Management) requirements, and mapping of QoS. TSG GSM/EDGE radio access network (TSG GERAN) is responsible for the specification of the radio access part of GSM/EDGE. It covers radio interface protocol layers, OA&M specifications for the RAN nodes, internal (Abis, Ater) and external (A, Gb) interfaces, and conformance test specifications for GERAN base stations and terminals. TSG radio access network (TSG RAN) is responsible for definition of the functions, requirements, and interfaces of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access network (UTRAN).