Cheat sheet
TSG RAN — the group that specifies the radio
3GPP's radio groups in one morning
- Depth
- Overview
- Chapters
- 7
- Reading
- 40 min
- Questions
- 40
- Document
- TS 38.300 v19.3.0
- Sources cited
- 130
The shape of it
1 The group and its six rooms
- 1 What TSG RAN is, and why the radio gets a group of its own
- 2 The six working groups and the line between them
- 3 What the numbers say about size and output
2 What the radio actually is
- 4 What NR actually is, in the shape its own document gives it
- 5 The layers a packet falls through, and the three states a device sits in
3 How the work moves, and how to watch it
Keep these in your head
- 1.5 What TSG RAN is, and why the radio gets a group of its own
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2.8 The six working groups and the line between them
The split is by kind of question, not by feature. One 5G feature is worked on in several rooms at once — the signal in RAN1, the messages in RAN2, the interface changes in RAN3, the limits in RAN4 and the tests in RAN5.
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3.6 What the numbers say about size and output
RAN4 writes the most and RAN1 draws the most people. Neither is "the biggest group" — they are big in different currencies, and a conversation that mixes the two goes wrong quickly.
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4.8 What NR actually is, in the shape its own document gives it
There is a two-step mapping and it is worth remembering as two steps: the core sorts packets into QoS flows, and the radio side maps QoS flows onto data radio bearers. The radio never sees the first step and the core never sees the second.
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5.1 The layers a packet falls through, and the three states a device sits in
The base station terminates everything radio: all of layer 2 and RRC. It does not terminate NAS. That single line explains most of the boundary between what RAN specifies and what the core groups specify.
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6.6 How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule
The exam changes almost as often as the rule. Every band, every option and every correction has to be provable, so RAN5's test documents move nearly in step with RAN4's and RAN2's rules.
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7.1 How to follow TSG RAN yourself, and what the record will not tell you
Everybody in the same room in the same week is what makes the letters of How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule work. A question raised in RAN1 on the Monday can be answered in RAN2 down the corridor by the Thursday.
Easy to get wrong
- 1.4 What TSG RAN is, and why the radio gets a group of its own
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2.5 The six working groups and the line between them
RAN4's size is not a sign that it writes the most rules. 352 of its 427 active documents are study reports rather than specifications [6]. Radio performance is measured band by band, and each band brings its own homework.
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3.3 What the numbers say about size and output
A big document count is not a big rulebook. RAN4 is the largest group on paper and most of that paper is study reports, while RAN5 is far smaller and almost all rules.
- 4.3 What NR actually is, in the shape its own document gives it
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5.6 The layers a packet falls through, and the three states a device sits in
RRC_INACTIVE is not "idle with a better name". In idle, the core pages the device and the radio context is gone. In inactive, the base station pages it, the context is still held, and the connection towards the core is still up — so coming back is a resume, not a fresh setup.
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6.2 How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule
The record says what happened, never why. A document's status reads approved, revised, noted, withdrawn or not pursued and stops there. Anyone telling you why a proposal died is not reading it out of this data.
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7.5 How to follow TSG RAN yourself, and what the record will not tell you
"The database records it as a study" and "3GPP calls it a study" are different sentences. The word here is a document type in a table. Where the difference carries weight, say which one you mean.
The numbers, and where each came from
Every one was counted out of a file on this machine. Hover a row to read the question that produced it.
- 198 198 active RAN plenary specifications
- 1059 1059 active RAN specifications
- 179 179 active documents the RAN plenary holds from the 3G and GSM series
- 3599 3599 active 3GPP specifications in total
- 811563 811563 RAN meeting documents in the local database
- 1629581 1629581 meeting documents of all of 3GPP in the local database
- 3230 3230 work items were opened by a RAN plenary document
- 66 66 active RAN1 specifications
- 62 62 active RAN2 specifications
- 168 168 active RAN3 specifications
- 427 427 active RAN4 specifications
- 352 352 active RAN4 study reports (TR)
- 84 84 active RAN5 specifications
- 72 72 active RAN5 specifications (TS)
- 54 54 active RAN6 specifications
- 51 51 active RAN1 study reports (TR)
- 264 264 active documents in the 38 series
- 138 138 active 38-series documents owned by RAN4
- 34 34 active 38-series documents owned by RAN1
- 22 22 active 38-series documents owned by RAN2
- 35 35 active 38-series documents owned by RAN3
- 0 0 active 38-series documents owned by RAN6
- 206017 206017 RAN4 meeting documents in the local database
- 177799 177799 RAN1 meeting documents in the local database
- 175440 175440 RAN2 meeting documents in the local database
- 99770 99770 RAN5 meeting documents in the local database
- 96152 96152 RAN3 meeting documents in the local database
- 55270 55270 RAN plenary meeting documents in the local database
- 1115 1115 RAN6 meeting documents in the local database
- 710 710 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN1#125
- 426 426 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN2#134
- 396 396 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN#112
- 344 344 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN4#119
- 274 274 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN5#111
- 202 202 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN3#132
- 3 3 active catalogue rows carry no usable group
- 470 470 of the 1059 active RAN specifications are parsed into text on this machine
- 23 23 RAN meeting folders are mirrored on this machine
- 737 737 RAN meeting documents of type 'SID new'
- 217 217 of the RAN work items are studies
- 335 335 RAN work items belong to Rel-18
- 195 195 RAN work items belong to Rel-19
- 100 100 RAN work items belong to Rel-20
- 2684 2684 RAN meeting documents of type 'draft TR'
- 23061 23061 RAN meeting documents of type 'pCR'
- 3627 3627 RAN meeting documents of type 'WID new'
- 190421 190421 RAN meeting documents of type 'CR'
- 40530 40530 RAN meeting documents of type 'draftCR'
- 7012 7012 RAN meeting documents of type 'CR pack'
- 243160 243160 RAN documents name a specification they change
- 18987 18987 RAN documents change 38.133
- 11787 11787 RAN documents change 38.331
- 9008 9008 RAN documents change 38.101-1
- 8655 8655 RAN documents change 38.523-1
- 6735 6735 RAN documents change 38.533
- 257341 257341 RAN meeting documents of type 'discussion'
- 20742 20742 RAN meeting documents of type 'LS out'
- 7249 7249 RAN meeting documents of type 'WI status report'
The document's own words
One quotation per chapter that carries one, of 4.
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1.6 What TSG RAN is, and why the radio gets a group of its own
The present document provides an overview and overall description of the NG-RAN and focuses on the radio interface protocol architecture of NR connected to 5GC (E-UTRA connected to 5GC is covered in the 36 series). Details of the radio interface protocols are specified in companion specifications of the 38 series.
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4.2 What NR actually is, in the shape its own document gives it
The gNBs and ng-eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the Xn interface. The gNBs and ng-eNBs are also connected by means of the NG interfaces to the 5GC, more specifically to the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) by means of the NG-C interface and to the UPF (User Plane Function) by means of the NG-U interface …
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5.2 The layers a packet falls through, and the three states a device sits in
The layer 2 of NR is split into the following sublayers: Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) and Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP).
The words
19 the course explains, out of 264 the document defines — all of them.
- 5GC
- 5G Core Network
- AMF
- Access and Mobility Management Function
- BCCH
- Broadcast Control Channel
- BCH
- Broadcast Channel
- C-RNTI
- Cell RNTI
- DL-SCH
- Downlink Shared Channel
- I-RNTI
- Inactive RNTI
- NGAP
- NG Application Protocol
- NR
- NR Radio Access
- OFDM
- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
- PCH
- Paging Channel
- RACH
- Random Access Channel
- RNA
- RAN-based Notification Area
- SDAP
- Service Data Adaptation Protocol
- UL-SCH
- Uplink Shared Channel
- UPF
- User Plane Function
- Xn-C
- Xn-Control plane
- Xn-U
- Xn-User plane
- XnAP
- Xn Application Protocol
Where to look it up
The 34 clauses of TS 38.300 this course is built from.
§1§4.1§4.2§4.3§4.4§4.5§4.6§4.7§4.8§4.9§4.10§4.11§5§5.1§5.5§6§6.1§6.2§6.3§6.4§6.5§6.6§6.10§7§7.1§7.2§8.1§9.2.1.3§9.2.2.1§10.1§11§12.1§13.2§14
The 72 named sources it cites, by what they are.
Specification 26
TS 44.018TS 45.005TR 38.913TR 38.914TS 38.300TS 38.211TS 38.212TS 38.213TS 38.214TS 38.331TS 38.321TS 38.322TS 38.323TS 36.331TS 38.401TS 38.413TS 38.423TS 38.473TS 38.101-1TS 38.104TS 38.133TS 38.508-1TS 38.521-1TS 38.523-1TS 38.533TS 38.141-1
Meeting 19
3GPPRAN#1123GPPRAN1#1253GPPRAN6#18-Decision Teleconference3GPPRAN4#1183GPPRAN2#1343GPPRAN#1083GPPRAN#1093GPPRAN#1103GPPRAN#1113GPPRAN#1133GPPRAN#1143GPPRAN3#1323GPPRAN4#1193GPPRAN5#1113GPPRAN1#124-bis3GPPRAN2#133-bis3GPPRAN3#131-bis3GPPRAN4#118-bis3GPPRAN5#110
Meeting document 13
R4-2605235RP-260870RP-261197RP-260923R3-261019R1-2603888R2-2602996RP-260832RP-260834R5-261705RP-260831RP-260830R1-2603480
Pattern 7
address of one specification's information pageaddress of one specification's file folderaddress of the report the whole catalogue is read fromaddress of one meeting's portal pageaddress of one meeting's document listaddress of one meeting documentaddress of one group's chair history
Working group 7
Where to go from here
- The same subject, quick start — Under an hour, four chapters, the shape of the thing.
- The same subject, in depth — The working reference: every mechanism, every parameter.
- Every question of this course — 40 of them, on one page.
- The final test — 15 questions, 70 per cent to pass.
- The whole of TS 38.300 — all 617 clauses.
- Every source behind the course — 1194 of them, each with its method.
The raised numbers on this page
- 1059 active RAN specifications — rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg is one of RP, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6 and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
- 3599 active 3GPP specifications in total — rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where active='yes', read 2026-08-04
- 811563 RAN meeting documents in the local database — rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite whose document number starts with one of RP-, R1-, R2-, R3-, R4-, R5-, R6-, read 2026-08-04
- 1629581 meeting documents of all of 3GPP in the local database — rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
- 198 active RAN plenary specifications — rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='RP' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
- 352 active RAN4 study reports (TR) — rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R4', active='yes' and type='TR', read 2026-08-04