The 3GPP Organizational Partners, the Telecommunication Technology Committee and the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses, were joint hosts of the 3GPP Technical Specification Group (TSG) #111 meetings, held in Fukuoka from March 9 to 13, 2026. Although 5G Advanced specification work remains the primary focus, two new reports caught the eye during the week.
First up was the approval of the first TSG and System Aspects (TSG SA) study on 6G Use Cases and Service Requirements (TR 22.870), with over 590 pages on the motivation for a 6th Generation where "anywhere" is expected to become "everywhere" connectivity.
In addition to new work on immersive communication, hyper reliable and low-latency, more massive IoT, ubiquitous connectivity, new AI/ML & AI applications and integrated sensing and communications, there is strong support for features that meet market pressure to reduce CAPEX and OPEX, including the system performance improvements delivered in 5G Advanced.
Looking forward to 6G Radio
Following close behind the architecture study, the TSG RAN group has made great progress on their radio study on 6G scenarios and requirements (TR 38.914), which now stands at 90 percent completion, at the end of the 111th Plenaries in Fukuoka.
Topics completed in the 6G RAN study so far:
- Key technical principles
- Deployment scenarios
- Other operational requirements (RAN sharing, ease of operations and self-organization, network resilience and service characteristics awareness in RAN).
TR 38.914 will guide the technical work in 3GPP RAN Working Groups on requirements for 6G radio services and the high-level aspects of 5G to 6G migration. It will also help shape the 3GPP input for the IMT-2030 technical performance requirements (TPRs) under the ITU-R.
Looking forward to 6G Radio
A note on the TSG Core Network and Terminals (CT) work on 6G: After discussion, TSG CT approved (the start of work on) the first 6G protocol studies on Control Plane Protocols in Core Network of the 6G System (CP-260165 toward TR 29.840), Protocol aspects for User Plane in Core Network of 6G System (CP-200166 toward TR 29.841), Resilience and Reliability in Core Network of the 6G System (CP-260167 toward TR 29.842) and a CT1 Study on the Network-Attached Storage (NAS) protocol for the 6G System (CP-260171).
All TSG CT studies are targeted to finish in September 2027.
Timeline for Release 2
During the Fukuoka meeting, a cross-TSG session on the Rel-21 timeline was held. The discussion confirmed a high degree of alignment between the groups, clearing the way for a TSG#112 (June 8-12) announcement on the timeline for the first 6G normative release.