School of Specs TSG RAN — the group that specifies th…Overview

How the work moves, and how to watch it · chapter 6 of 7 · 6 minutes

6 How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule

Study description, study report, work item, published specification and change request — the five stages, the paper each one leaves, and what the volumes say about where the effort really goes.

6.1 Five stages, and the paper each leaves

Nothing goes straight into a specification. A radio feature passes through a fixed sequence, and each step leaves a document type you can count.

The stages are: someone asks the plenary to look at a question; a group does the homework and writes it up; the plenary turns the answer into real work; the work lands in a published specification; and from then on the specification only ever changes by change request.

6.2 Stage one: asking the plenary

It starts as a study item description put to the plenary. 737 such documents are in the local database [1].

Not every one is accepted. RP-261197, a proposal to survey satellite regulations, is recorded as "not pursued" RP-261197.

Studies are the minority of what gets opened. Of the 3230 pieces of work a RAN plenary document opened [2], 217 are recorded as studies [3].

Those pieces of work spread across releases in a shape that says where the group is standing: 335 belong to Release 18 [4], 195 to Release 19 [5] and 100 to Release 20 [6] — the newest is smallest because it has only just started.

6.3 Stage two: the homework, written in public

A study produces a study report, and the report is not written in private and published at the end. It is built meeting by meeting: 2684 draft reports [7] and 23061 changes to draft reports [8] sit in the database.

The 6G study is at exactly that stage right now.

That is the whole of what the local record says about 6G — one numbered report and one agreed draft. No scope, no content, no dates.

6.4 Stage three: turning an answer into work

When a study is done, a work item description turns it into real work. 3627 of those exist [9].

RP-260923 is one of them, opening conformance work on mission critical calls RP-260923.

6.5 Stage four and five: publication, then change requests only

Once a specification is published, the only way it is ever altered is a change request. 190421 change requests [10] and 40530 drafts of change requests [11] are in the database.

The plenary does not take them one at a time. 7012 change request packs show them being approved in bundles [12].

Altogether 243160 RAN documents name the specification they change [13].

Two real ones make the shape concrete:

  • R4-2605235 — Nokia adding radio band n115 to the base station test document 38.141-1 R4-2605235 TS 38.141-1.

  • R3-261019 — a change to the architecture description 38.401, written by three companies together R3-261019 TS 38.401.

6.6 Where the changes actually land

Counting which specification a change request names gives a ranking, and it is not the one most people expect.

Document What it is Documents changing it
38.133 RAN4's radio resource management requirements 18987 [14]
38.331 RAN2's radio connection protocol 11787 [15]
38.101-1 the phone's radio requirements 9008 [16]
38.523-1 the protocol test cases 8655 [17]
38.533 the radio management test cases 6735 [18]

The first three are the rules. The last two are the exam.

6.7 Telling the stage from the document type

Every meeting document carries a type, and the type alone puts a piece of work on the timeline. This is the fastest reading trick in the whole course.

Type Stage it belongs to How many in RAN
SID new asking the plenary to open a study 737
draft TR the study report being written 2684
pCR a change to a draft study report 23061
WID new turning an answer into real work 3627
draftCR a change being shaped before it is put 40530
CR a change put to a published specification 190421
CR pack a bundle of changes for approval 7012
LS out a letter to another group 20742
WI status report a group reporting progress upwards 7249

Every count in that last column is the local database's, and each one is cited where the text of this chapter states it.

Read down the last column and the numbers grow rather than shrink: 737 questions asked, 3627 pieces of work opened, and 190421 changes made to rules that already exist. Most of the effort goes into maintaining what is written, not into starting something new.

6.8 What a meeting is mostly made of

None of the document types above is the commonest. 257341 RAN documents are marked simply "discussion" [19] — more than the 190421 change requests put together [10].

A RAN meeting is mostly argument. The change requests are what is left when the argument finishes.

6.9 Talking sideways, and reporting upwards

When one group needs something from another it writes a liaison statement, a letter from one group to another. 20742 outgoing letters are in the database [20].

Two of them show one question in two rooms in the same week: R1-2603888 was drafted in RAN1 about how two-sided machine-learning models are paired, and R2-2602996 is a draft reply on the same question from RAN2 R1-2603888 R2-2602996 3GPPRAN2#134.

Upwards, every working group reports to the plenary at every plenary. 7249 work item status reports exist, and each group's chair files a status report of its own — RP-260832 is RAN1's, RP-260834 is RAN2's [21] RP-260832 RP-260834.

The record of a meeting is written down too. R5-261705 is RAN5's minutes of its previous meeting, filed at the next one, and RP-260831 is the draft report of RAN#111 tabled at RAN#112 R5-261705 RP-260831.

Knowing the stages is half of following the work. The other half is knowing where the paper sits and what it will not tell you: How to follow TSG RAN yourself, and what the record will not tell you.

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. 737 RAN meeting documents of type 'SID new' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='SID new' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  2. 3230 work items were opened by a RAN plenary document folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/wis whose metadata.json has a tdoc_code starting 'RP-', of 9406 work items in all, read 2026-08-04
  3. 217 of the RAN work items are studies folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/wis whose metadata.json has a tdoc_code starting 'RP-' and either an acronym starting 'FS_' or a name starting 'study', read 2026-08-04
  4. 335 RAN work items belong to Rel-18 folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/wis whose metadata.json has a tdoc_code starting 'RP-' and release='Rel-18', read 2026-08-04
  5. 195 RAN work items belong to Rel-19 folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/wis whose metadata.json has a tdoc_code starting 'RP-' and release='Rel-19', read 2026-08-04
  6. 100 RAN work items belong to Rel-20 folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/wis whose metadata.json has a tdoc_code starting 'RP-' and release='Rel-20', read 2026-08-04
  7. 2684 RAN meeting documents of type 'draft TR' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='draft TR' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  8. 23061 RAN meeting documents of type 'pCR' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='pCR' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  9. 3627 RAN meeting documents of type 'WID new' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='WID new' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  10. 190421 RAN meeting documents of type 'CR' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='CR' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  11. 40530 RAN meeting documents of type 'draftCR' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='draftCR' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  12. 7012 RAN meeting documents of type 'CR pack' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='CR pack' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  13. 243160 RAN documents name a specification they change rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a non-empty crspec column and a RAN document number, read 2026-08-04
  14. 18987 RAN documents change 38.133 rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a RAN document number, grouped on the crspec column after trimming spaces, read 2026-08-04
  15. 11787 RAN documents change 38.331 rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a RAN document number, grouped on the crspec column after trimming spaces, read 2026-08-04
  16. 9008 RAN documents change 38.101-1 rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a RAN document number, grouped on the crspec column after trimming spaces, read 2026-08-04
  17. 8655 RAN documents change 38.523-1 rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a RAN document number, grouped on the crspec column after trimming spaces, read 2026-08-04
  18. 6735 RAN documents change 38.533 rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite with a RAN document number, grouped on the crspec column after trimming spaces, read 2026-08-04
  19. 257341 RAN meeting documents of type 'discussion' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='discussion' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  20. 20742 RAN meeting documents of type 'LS out' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='LS out' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04
  21. 7249 RAN meeting documents of type 'WI status report' rows in the pygppe meeting-document table /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite where tdoctype='WI status report' and the number starts with a RAN prefix, read 2026-08-04

Every source this course is built on

Check yourself

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

Q6.1 What is the first document in the life of a new piece of RAN work?

Q6.2 Of the 3230 pieces of work a RAN plenary document opened, how many are studies?

Q6.3 Once a specification is published, how is it changed?

Q6.4 Which is the commonest kind of RAN meeting document?

Q6.5 Which document has been changed most often in RAN?

Q6.6 One group needs an answer from another. What does it send?

This chapter was written against TS 38.300 version 19.3.0, and built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A newer version of the document may say something else.