7 How to follow it yourself, and what the record cannot tell you

7.1 Search by the short name

3GPP's document database is organised around work item short names. Type the acronym and you get every document filed against it, which is the only search that returns a whole conversation rather than a scatter of hits.

Twenty-four of the 37 items are worth knowing by name. The other thirteen are umbrella rows and sibling parts, and the register carries each of those separately. ^[1]

Acronym	What it is	Release	Group	Documents
FS_Ambient_IoT_RAN FS_Ambient_IoT_RAN	RAN feasibility study	Rel-18	RAN	177
FS_AmbientIoT FS_AmbientIoT	the founding SA1 study	Rel-19	SA1	1379
FS_AmbientIoT FS_AmbientIoT	the SA2 architecture study	Rel-19	SA2	1379
AmbientIoT AmbientIoT	SA1 normative work	Rel-19	SA1	201
FS_Ambient_IoT_solutions FS_Ambient_IoT_solutions	RAN solutions study	Rel-19	RAN1	2357
FS_Ambient_IoT_Sec FS_Ambient_IoT_Sec	SA3 security study	Rel-19	SA3	726
Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Core Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Core	RAN normative, core	Rel-19	RAN1	1234
Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Perf Ambient_IoT_Solutions-Perf	RAN normative, performance	Rel-19	RAN4	78
AmbientIoT-ARC AmbientIoT-ARC	SA2 architecture, normative	Rel-19	SA2	695
AmbientIoT-SEC AmbientIoT-SEC	SA3 security, normative	Rel-19	SA3	434
AmbientIoT-CH AmbientIoT-CH	charging	Rel-19	SA5	15
AmbientIoT-CT AmbientIoT-CT	CT protocols	Rel-19	CT1	959
Ambient_IoT_Solutions_plus_CT1_SA3-ConTest Ambient_IoT_Solutions_plus_CT1_SA3-ConTest	conformance testing	Rel-19	RAN5	65
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_ARC FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_ARC	phase 2 architecture study	Rel-20	SA2	324
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_APP	phase 2 application study	Rel-20	SA6	178
FS_AIoT_SEC_Ph2 FS_AIoT_SEC_Ph2	phase 2 security study	Rel-20	SA3	239
FS_Ambient_IoT_Outdoor_Active FS_Ambient_IoT_Outdoor_Active	outdoor active devices study	Rel-20	RAN1	353
FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH FS_AmbientIoT_Ph2_CH	phase 2 charging study	Rel-20	SA5	0
Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Core Ambient_IoT_Solutions_Ph2-Core	phase 2 RAN, core	Rel-20	RAN1	534
AmbientIoT_Ph2-ARC AmbientIoT_Ph2-ARC	phase 2 architecture	Rel-20	SA2	280
AmbientIoT_Ph2-APP AmbientIoT_Ph2-APP	phase 2 application enablement	Rel-20	SA6	74
AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM	phase 2 management	Rel-20	SA5	15
AmbientIoT_Ph2-SEC AmbientIoT_Ph2-SEC	phase 2 security	Rel-20	SA3	0
AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT	phase 2 protocols	Rel-20	CT1	40

7.2 The documents that decided things

Every entry below is in the register with a working address on 3gpp.org. Reading a work item description is the fastest way to know what a piece of work was for, because section 4 of it is the objective in the proposers' own words.

• The area opened with SP-220085 at SP-95-e. SP-220085

• Radio ran RP-232404 at RP-101, then RP-240826 at RP-103, then RP-252105 at RP-109 for the normative work. RP-232404 RP-240826 RP-252105

• Requirements ran SP-231403 at SP-102. SP-231403

• Architecture ran SP-240969 at SP-104, then SP-250377 at SP-107. SP-240969 SP-250377

• Security ran SP-240506 at SP-103, revised by SP-251196 at SP-109. SP-240506 SP-251196

• Charging ran SP-250369 at SP-107, and protocols CP-252196 at CP-109. SP-250369 CP-252196

Phase 2 has its own set. SP-250834 and SP-250870 at SP-108 opened the architecture and application enablement studies, SP-251246 at SP-109 the security study.

RP-252894 at RP-109 opened the phase 2 RAN work, and RP-253381 and RP-253394 at RP-110 conformance testing and the outdoor study. SP-250834 SP-250870 SP-251246 RP-252894 RP-253381 RP-253394

The most recent openings are SP-260296, SP-260311 and SP-260315 at SP-111, CP-261030 and CP-261295 at CP-112, and SP-260665 and SP-260656 at SP-112.

SP-260296 SP-260311 SP-260315 CP-261030 CP-261295 SP-260665 SP-260656

7.3 The reading order that pays best

Start where the work is densest, not at the beginning.

• The system: TS 23.369, the busiest specification in the area with 524 change requests. TS 23.369

• The radio: TR 38.769 for the reasoning, then TS 38.291 and TS 38.391 for what was specified. TR 38.769 TS 38.291 TS 38.391

• What a device says: TS 24.369. TS 24.369

• The requirements underneath: TS 22.369, and the report it came from, TR 22.840. TS 22.369 TR 22.840

• The security model: TR 33.713, then TS 33.369. TR 33.713 TS 33.369

Each group's entry in the register also carries the address of that group's own document folder on 3gpp.org, its first and last Ambient IoT meeting, and the work items it leads. SA2 RAN1 CT1

7.4 What the record cannot tell you

This is the part that keeps the rest honest. Eight things are simply not here.

• Why anybody decided anything. The data holds a document's outcome word — approved, agreed, revised, noted, merged, withdrawn — and nothing about the argument behind it. SP-220085

• What any letter said. Four recent ones are named: S3-262519 and S3-262517 from SA3 at meeting S3-128, S2-2605244 and S2-2605226 from SA2 at meeting S2-175. Their texts are not on this machine. S3-262519 S3-262517 S2-2605244 S2-2605226

• Anything about products, chips, deployments or markets. Not one of the 10771 documents says whether a single Ambient IoT device has ever been built. ^[2]

• What the abbreviations mean. AIOTF, Topology 2, Device 1, DO-A are carried exactly as their documents wrote them, and explained nowhere. ^[3]

• Anything usable about 6G. The phase 2 RAN work item's scope excludes the features of 6G relevant to IoT, and that single clause is everything the register holds on the subject. ^[4]

• One start date nobody here can explain. The outdoor active-device study carries a start of 2019-03-07, years before this subject existed, and the register does not say why. Its finish date is 2026-03-03; the start never gets quoted. FS_Ambient_IoT_Outdoor_Active

• Why CT6 has filed nothing. It leads a work item and has no documents. The data says that and stops. CT6 AmbientIoT_Ph2-CT

• One objective that does not exist. The phase 2 management work item's description jumps from section 3 to section 5, so there is no objective to quote for it. AmbientIoT_Ph2-OAM

One more gap belongs here: TS 22.369, the requirements specification, has no scope clause in the parsed copy on this machine — it starts at clause 2 — so that document cannot be quoted from its own opening. TS 22.369

7.5 Where to read this yourself

Everything named in this chapter is a document number: work item descriptions such as SP-220085 and RP-252105, specifications such as TS 23.369 and TS 24.369, reports such as TR 38.769. SP-220085 RP-252105 TS 23.369 TS 24.369 TR 38.769

The School of Specs carries the text of none of them. It tells you which number answers which question and hands you a link; the reading is yours, and it happens on 3gpp.org.