School of Specs CT1 — the group that writes what your…In depth

Around the group, and the limits of the record · chapter 13 of 14 · 7 minutes

13 Following CT1 yourself

Where CT1's documents live, how to read a document number, what the status words and document kinds mean, and a routine that gets from a question to an answer.

Built from §Foreword §Annex F

13.1 Where the documents live

Seven addresses cover almost everything, and each one is in the register with the code that generates it recorded beside it.

  • The CT1 file area on the 3GPP server [1] — every meeting folder, its documents, its agendas and its reports.

  • The folder the mirror on this machine is pulled from [2].

  • CT1's documents, searchable [3] — the list the counts in this course were made from.

  • The meeting calendar [4] — every meeting of every group, held and planned.

  • The specification status report [5] — the page the specification catalogue used here is built from, and the place to look up a document that is not CT1's.

  • The 3GPP work plan [6] — the list of work items every group's documents point at, and the only way to expand a name like 5GSAT_Ph3_ARCH.

  • The CT1 list of office holders [7] — chair, vice chairs and secretary, term by term, including the 44 terms this register does not name [8].

13.2 Reading a document number

A CT1 document number looks like C1-262074 C1-262074. Three things are worth knowing about it.

The prefix is the group. Every CT1 document number begins C1- CT1 — Mobility, call control, session management (WG1_mm-cc-sm_ex-CN1). A number beginning CP- is not one of these — those appear in the Tdoc column of the change history of TS 24.501, alongside a meeting named CT#112 rather than a CT1 meeting §Annex F.

The number is not the change request number. The change traced in From a document number to a published version is document C1-262074 at CT1 and change request 7174 against TS 24.501. Neither can be derived from the other.

Nothing else can be read off it. The register records which meeting a document belongs to, who filed it, what it is about and what outcome it got — all as separate fields. The number alone tells you the group and nothing more.

13.3 The status words

Six outcome words are counted in this register, using meeting C1-161 as the example One CT1 meeting, by the numbers:

Word What it marks At C1-161
revised the document came back with a new number 259 [9]
agreed the group accepted it 174 [10]
postponed it was left for a later meeting 70 [11]
noted it was read and no action taken 53 [12]
merged it was folded into another document 33 [13]
withdrawn its author took it back 19 [14]

Two further words, "approved" and "endorsed", appear in the underlying data without counts in the register From a document number to a published version.

13.4 The kinds of document

Seven kinds are counted for the twelve months to 2026-08-04:

Kind What it is In the year
CR a proposed edit to a published specification 2835 [16]
pCR a proposed edit to a document still being drafted 563 [17]
discussion a paper arguing a point 197 [18]
SID new a new study item description 136 [19]
LS in a letter from another group 135 [20]
LS out a letter to another group 108 [21]
WID new a new work item description 87 [22]

Those seven come to fewer than the 4235 documents of the year [23], so other kinds exist that the register does not count. The gap is not a mystery to be solved by subtraction; it is a list of kinds nobody counted.

13.5 Meeting names, three ways

The same meeting has different names in different places, and this catches people as reliably as the group name does.

The meeting reports on the file server use their own folder naming again, which is why the register records the exact path each report was read from rather than describing it.

13.6 Reading a version number

Every 3GPP specification carries the same rule in its Foreword, and knowing it saves reading the document to find out whether it is finished §Foreword:

V1. First digit 1 — presented to the TSG for information.

V2. First digit 2 — presented to the TSG for approval.

V3. First digit 3 or greater — approved and under change control.

V4. Second digit — incremented for all changes of substance.

V5. Third digit — incremented for editorial changes only.

So a document at 0.2.2, as TS 24.501 was in 2017-12 §Annex F, is a draft. At 20.0.0 it is approved.

13.7 How fresh this data is

The newest CT1 document on record was uploaded 2026-07-31 at 10:40:59, filed under meeting C1-162 [24] — a meeting planned for 2026-08-24 C1-162 that has not happened. 69 documents are already sitting under it [25].

157 of the 229 active CT1 specifications have parsed text on this machine [26], so a clause can be quoted from those and only those.

13.8 How to check a number

Every counted figure used in this course carries a method: the question that produced it, the table it was asked of, and the date. That is what makes the numbers checkable rather than merely stated.

Reading one is worth doing once. Behind "229 active CT1 specifications" [27] sits a query against the specification catalogue for rows where the working group is C1 and the active flag is set, read on 2026-08-04.

Behind "617 documents were put to C1-161" [15] sits a count of rows in the document database whose meeting field is exactly C1-161.

Two things follow. First, a number is only as good as its query — a count of rows where the meeting is C1-161 is a count of filings, not of decisions. Second, if a figure here disagrees with one you have from elsewhere, the method tells you immediately whether the two were even asking the same question.

The other kinds of entry work the same way: a meeting entry records the database row it came from, and a report entry records the exact path of the file on this machine that was read [28].

13.9 A routine that works

Take a real question and walk it. Somebody says a behaviour of TS 24.501 changed recently and you want to know when and why.

R1. Find the change in the document. Open the change history and search the Subject/Comment column for the words you were given §Annex F. It gives you the date, the change request number, the category and the version it landed in.

R2. Find the meeting. The same row gives a meeting and a Tdoc beginning CP-.

R3. Find CT1's own document. Search CT1's document list for the same subject line [3]. That gives the C1- number, the filer and the CT1 meeting.

R4. Read the meeting report. The file area holds it [1]. Check whether it is approved or a draft before quoting anything from it.

R5. Stop at "why". The record holds the outcome word and not the argument. That limit and the rest of them are What this record cannot tell you.

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. The CT1 file area on the 3GPP server pygppe builds this address from its own group table (libs/pygpp_storage_core/pygpp_storage_core/wgs.py, key CT1, field http_base); address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  2. The CT1 mirror area on the 3GPP server pygppe group table, key CT1, field sync_http (libs/pygpp_storage_core/pygpp_storage_core/wgs.py:335); address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  3. CT1 documents on whatthespec.net pygppe bin/useralarms/links.py:38 builds a meeting's document page this way; address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  4. The 3GPP meeting calendar on whatthespec.net pygppe bin/useralarms/links.py:42; address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  5. The 3GPP specification status report pygppe libs/pygpp/pygpp_globals.py:134, glob['3gpp_specs_url']; address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  6. The 3GPP work plan pygppe libs/pygpp/pygpp_globals.py:133, glob['3gpp_wp_url']; address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  7. The CT1 list of office holders pygppe libs/pygpp/pygpp_officials.py:335 builds exactly this address for every group; address checked against pygppe's source 2026-08-04
  8. 44 CT1 terms of office are on record rows with Group='C1' in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/officials.jsn, read 2026-08-04
  9. 259 documents came out of C1-161 as 'revised' rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='revised', read 2026-08-04
  10. 174 documents were agreed at C1-161 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='agreed', read 2026-08-04
  11. 70 documents came out of C1-161 as 'postponed' rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='postponed', read 2026-08-04
  12. 53 documents came out of C1-161 as 'noted' rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='noted', read 2026-08-04
  13. 33 documents came out of C1-161 as 'merged' rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='merged', read 2026-08-04
  14. 19 documents came out of C1-161 as 'withdrawn' rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161' and status='withdrawn', read 2026-08-04
  15. 617 documents were put to C1-161 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-161', read 2026-08-04
  16. 2835 CT1 documents of kind 'CR' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='CR' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  17. 563 CT1 documents of kind 'pCR' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='pCR' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  18. 197 CT1 documents of kind 'discussion' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='discussion' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  19. 136 CT1 documents of kind 'SID new' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='SID new' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  20. 135 CT1 documents of kind 'LS in' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='LS in' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  21. 108 CT1 documents of kind 'LS out' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='LS out' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  22. 87 CT1 documents of kind 'WID new' uploaded on or after 2025-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and tdoctype='WID new' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  23. 4235 CT1 documents in the twelve months to 2026-08-04 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-' and uploaded >= '2025-08-04', read 2026-08-04
  24. the newest CT1 document on record was uploaded 2026-07-31 10:40:59, for meeting C1-162 the largest uploaded value in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting starts with 'C1-'; the document is C1-263067, read 2026-08-04
  25. 69 documents are already filed under C1-162 rows in the pygppe document database, table tdoc where meeting='C1-162', read 2026-08-04
  26. 157 of 229 active CT1 specifications have parsed text on this machine folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/friendlyspec/json/<specnum without dots> that match an active CT1 specification, counted 2026-08-04
  27. 229 active CT1 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue, table spec where wg='C1' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  28. CT1 meeting report C1-161 the Markdown conversion pygppe keeps at /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/meetings/ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ct/WG1_mm-cc-sm_ex-CN1/TSGC1_161_Dalian/Report/Draft_CT1_161_meeting_report_v100/Draft_CT1_161_meeting_report_v100.md, read 2026-08-04

Every source this course is built on

Check yourself

Answers appear when you pick one, with where they come from.

Q13.1 What does the prefix on the document number C1-262074 tell you?

Q13.2 Which document kind arrived most often at CT1 in the last twelve months?

Q13.3 When was the newest CT1 document on record uploaded?

Q13.4 How many of the 229 active CT1 specifications have parsed text on this machine?

Q13.5 A specification is at version 2.1.0. What does the first digit tell you?

This chapter was written against TS 24.501 version 20.0.0, and built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A newer version of the document may say something else.