This week here in sunny Madrid we participated to intensive discussions in 3GPP on the direction of Release 20 for 5G-Advanced. After many presentations and experiences with the local Spanish delicacies the vivid Madrid has to offer, there was a key change visible from earlier releases of 5G-Advanced. This was the need to focus on a more limited set of essential additions with either identified needs from deployments or addressing remaining unmet needs of a specific ecosystem.

Release 20 will deliver several important 5G-Advanced enhancements and will prepare for 6G. Thus, the 5G-Advanced proposals were carefully screened and only a selective number will be able to move onwards with the expectation that soon after the start of the 6G work, more than half of the 3GPP capacity is expected to be invested for progressing 6G technology.

While official approval of detailed work items will happen later in 2025, as well as approval of the 6G studies, the RAN and SA workshops this week gave a clear direction what to expect for the last significant release of 5G-Advanced.

New feature set of Release 20

The key themes anticipated to shape 6G, including sustainability, AI, and security, will receive enhanced focus in this new release. Together with the ambitious goal to reach global connectivity, and hence extend beyond terrestrial networks, and to offer new immersive experiences to both consumers and enterprises.

Release 20 will focus on system-wide themes, including network energy efficiency, which is a critical consideration from a sustainability standpoint. Many of the features being considered may require updates to 5G devices, but they will also establish a new baseline for energy efficiency leading toward 6G, where the first phase of devices is expected to support these features. 5G services with stringent QoS requirements may be dynamically adjusted based on the energy characteristics of the delivered service or energy availability constraints. Additionally, Release 20 5G systems may have the capability to report the carbon footprint of specific communication services, such as those for a group of users, including fleets of vehicles or IoT devices.

The use of AI is a major theme that is to continue for 5G-Advanced in many levels. There was clear interest to address AI/ML for the mobility onwards, following the on-going study on the use of AI/ML with Layer 3 mobility. AI/ML would be used for solutions like measurement prediction, thus reducing the need for actual measurements and improving mobility performance with prediction of expected failures. The other direction is to complement the Release 19 work for AI/ML for air interface with improved capabilities for dealing with different AI/ML solutions, including improvements related to Channel State Information feedback operation as well as further enhancements in UE data collection to allow for UE-sided model training. Additionally, for NG-RAN, improvements are expected to be explored in key areas for use of AI/ML in the network side, such as network energy saving. The mobility aspect without relying on AI/ML is also generating significant interest, with the intention of improving L1-Triggered Mobility (LTM) from different dimensions. This potentially includes reducing the interruption times as current UE requirements result to the same interruption time as with the existing Layer 3 mobility.

Release 20 will further prepare 3GPP systems for migration to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) by adapting existing protocols and algorithms to PQC-ready standards. It will also involve the full integration of 256-bit algorithms into 3GPP procedures, while ensuring seamless coexistence between 128-bit and 256-bit algorithms.

Further work on MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology is also anticipated, focusing on areas where Release 19 has shown shortcomings or addressing the expected development of new devices, such as those with three uplink transmitters.

Further developments in Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are anticipated, particularly focusing on the specialized use case of voice communication at low data rates (1–2 kbps) over IoT-NTN connections. This capability could serve scenarios where terrestrial network coverage is unavailable, providing a 3GPP-compliant alternative for satellite-based emergency calls. Additionally, NTN Release 20 work is expected to enhance support for mission-critical services by utilizing satellite access and leverage multi-orbit satellite networks to enable a range of services.

Additional enhancements are expected to improve the XR and immersive communications experience, including advancements in QoS handling and monitoring. This could involve leveraging Access Traffic Steering Switching Splitting (ATSSS) for Extended Reality and Media Service (XRM) traffic between 3GPP and non-3GPP access, considering L4S and PDU-set based QoS handling, or utilizing AI for XRM-specific analytics.

Sensing is another theme, identified as a potential new use case for 6G, but it also sparks interest in continuing studies based on 5G-Advanced assumptions, particularly before 6G L1 parameters become available for further exploration.  With 5G-Advanced, the natural expectation is that there will be no major modifications to the existing physical layer structures, as this would make implementing sensing solutions too complex and challenging. The performance studies are expected to give more understanding of the system impacts of sensing, including how to bring and where to bring the necessary information for actual sensing processing. An end-to-end architecture will be needed to offer Sensing-as-a-Service and expose sensing results to 3rd party applications.

There is also an expectation that additional work on Ambient IoT will be included, expanding beyond the limited scope of Release 19. Ambient IoT in Release 19 is addressing only limited RFID type functionality with range performance of up to a few tens of meters at most, thus not suitable for a cellular network environment. The discussions in Release 20 are expected to consider additional topologies better suited for cellular networks and potentially more capable devices.

Bridge to 6G

3GPP is anticipated to finalize the main Release 20 package in June 2025, after which work is expected to proceed concurrently with 6G studies. There is a strong focus on avoiding overlap between 5G-Advanced and 6G efforts to ensure that the same issues are not being studied in both tracks. The 3GPP 6G workshop, set to take place in Incheon, Korea, this March, will serve as a catalyst for 6G studies, enabling the approval of a detailed 6G study scope in June 2025.

Release 20 stands at a pivotal juncture, bridging the advanced capabilities of 5G with the foundational groundwork for 6G. By prioritizing a selective set of essential enhancements, 3GPP ensures that the immediate needs of the 5G-Advanced ecosystem are met, while also laying the groundwork for the transformative potential of 6G. This strategic focus underscores a commitment to innovation, balancing present deployment demands with a forward-looking vision for the next generation of wireless technology. As we move towards an era where 6G takes center stage, the groundwork laid in Release 20 will undoubtedly serve as a critical steppingstone in shaping a safe and prosperous hyper-digital world.