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

The group and its six rooms · chapter 3 of 7 · 5 minutes

3 What the numbers say about size and output

Documents, meeting paper and people counted group by group, what each measure gets wrong on its own, and where the counts stop being trustworthy.

3.1 Three ways to measure a working group

You can count what a group owns, what it files, or who turns up. The three give three different answers about which room matters, and that disagreement is the most useful thing on this page.

Every number below was read out of a database or a folder on one machine, and describes what that machine holds.

3.2 What each group owns

RAN as a whole holds 1059 active documents [1].

Owner Active documents
RAN plenary 198 [2]
RAN1 66 [3]
RAN2 62 [4]
RAN3 168 [5]
RAN4 427 [6]
RAN5 84 [7]
RAN6 (closed) 54 [8]

RAN4 is far out in front with 427, and RAN3 is the next largest working group with 168.

The plenary's 198 are its own and not the groups', and RAN1's 66, RAN2's 62, RAN5's 84 and RAN6's 54 complete the picture.

3.3 Rules or homework

A count of documents hides the difference between a specification, which is a rule other people have to follow, and a study report, which is homework a group did before deciding.

Split that way, the groups stop looking alike:

  • RAN4 — 352 of its 427 are study reports [9].

  • RAN1 — the same shape: 51 of its 66 are study reports [10].

  • RAN5 — the opposite: 72 of its 84 are specifications [11].

3.4 The 5G numbers

The 38 series — the 5G radio numbers — holds 264 active documents [12].

RAN4 owns 138 of them [13] — more than RAN1's 34 [14], RAN2's 22 [15] and RAN3's 35 [16] put together.

RAN6 owns none of them at all, which is what a closed group looks like in a catalogue [17].

3.5 Meeting paper

The local database holds 811563 RAN meeting documents [18].

That is roughly half of the 1629581 meeting documents of all of 3GPP that the same database holds [19].

Group Meeting documents
RAN4 206017 [20]
RAN1 177799 [21]
RAN2 175440 [22]
RAN5 99770 [23]
RAN3 96152 [24]
RAN plenary 55270 [25]
RAN6 1115 [26]

RAN4 leads again with 206017, ahead of RAN1's 177799 and RAN2's 175440, with RAN5 on 99770 and RAN3 on 96152.

The plenary has 55270, which is the number that tells you what a plenary is for: it decides rather than drafts, and deciding takes less paper.

RAN6 has 1115 in total — less than a single week of RAN4.

3.6 People

By people in the room, the order changes. RAN1 is the biggest: 710 sat in the room at RAN1#125.

Meeting People in the room
RAN1#125 710 [27]
RAN2#134 426 [28]
RAN#112 (plenary) 396 [29]
RAN4#119 344 [30]
RAN5#111 274 [31]
RAN3#132 202 [32]

RAN2 had 426 at its meeting the same week, RAN4 344, RAN5 274 and RAN3 202.

The plenary is smaller than RAN1, at 396 people for RAN#112.

The two orders disagree in a way worth sitting with. RAN4 files the most paper, RAN1 fills the biggest room, and RAN3 is the second-largest working group by documents owned yet the smallest of the five by attendance. A group can be large in what it maintains and small in who turns up.

3.7 What each measure will and will not carry

Three numbers, three different questions, and mixing them up is the commonest mistake made with this data.

  • Documents owned answers "how much does this group have to keep alive?" It says nothing about how busy the group is this quarter.

  • Meeting documents answers "how much argument has passed through this room?" It counts every draft, every revision and every discussion paper, so it rewards groups that iterate in public.

  • People in the room answers "how many organisations send someone?" It is recorded per meeting, so it is a snapshot and not a trend.

3.8 Where the counting stops

Three limits are worth carrying out of this chapter.

The catalogue is not perfect. Three active rows carry no usable group at all, so a per-group total is a very good number rather than a proven one [33].

Most of the text is not here. Of the 1059 active RAN documents, only 470 are parsed into readable text on this machine [34].

The archive is thin. Only 23 RAN meeting folders are mirrored here, the most recent ones [35].

And the work behind all of it: 3230 separate pieces of work were opened by a RAN plenary document [36]. How one of those starts and where it ends is How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule.

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 66 active RAN1 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R1' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  4. 62 active RAN2 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R2' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  5. 168 active RAN3 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R3' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  6. 427 active RAN4 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R4' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  7. 84 active RAN5 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R5' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  8. 54 active RAN6 specifications rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R6' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  9. 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
  10. 51 active RAN1 study reports (TR) rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R1', active='yes' and type='TR', read 2026-08-04
  11. 72 active RAN5 specifications (TS) rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R5', active='yes' and type='TS', read 2026-08-04
  12. 264 active documents in the 38 series rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite whose number starts '38.' and active='yes', read 2026-08-04
  13. 138 active 38-series documents owned by RAN4 rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R4', active='yes' and the number starts '38.', read 2026-08-04
  14. 34 active 38-series documents owned by RAN1 rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R1', active='yes' and the number starts '38.', read 2026-08-04
  15. 22 active 38-series documents owned by RAN2 rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R2', active='yes' and the number starts '38.', read 2026-08-04
  16. 35 active 38-series documents owned by RAN3 rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R3', active='yes' and the number starts '38.', read 2026-08-04
  17. 0 active 38-series documents owned by RAN6 rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where wg='R6', active='yes' and the number starts '38.', read 2026-08-04
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 206017 RAN4 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 'R4-', read 2026-08-04
  21. 177799 RAN1 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 'R1-', read 2026-08-04
  22. 175440 RAN2 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 'R2-', read 2026-08-04
  23. 99770 RAN5 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 'R5-', read 2026-08-04
  24. 96152 RAN3 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 'R3-', read 2026-08-04
  25. 55270 RAN plenary 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 'RP-', read 2026-08-04
  26. 1115 RAN6 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 'R6-', read 2026-08-04
  27. 710 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN1#125 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN1#125 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  28. 426 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN2#134 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN2#134 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  29. 396 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN#112 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN#112 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  30. 344 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN4#119 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN4#119 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  31. 274 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN5#111 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN5#111 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  32. 202 people sat in the room at 3GPPRAN3#132 Attendeesf2f of row for 3GPPRAN3#132 in /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/portal_meetings.sqlite, read 2026-08-04
  33. 3 active catalogue rows carry no usable group rows in the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite where active='yes' and wg is empty, '-' or '0', read 2026-08-04
  34. 470 of the 1059 active RAN specifications are parsed into text on this machine active RAN rows of the pygppe specification catalogue /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite whose number without dots is a folder under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/friendlyspec/json, counted 2026-08-04
  35. 23 RAN meeting folders are mirrored on this machine sub-folders of the six group folders under /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/data/meetings/ftp.3gpp.org/tsg_ran, counted 2026-08-04
  36. 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

Every source this course is built on

Check yourself

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

Q3.1 By active documents, which group is largest? And by people in the room?

Q3.2 How many of RAN4's 427 active documents are study reports rather than specifications?

Q3.3 The 38 series holds 264 active documents. Who owns most of them?

Q3.4 How many RAN meeting documents does the local database hold?

Q3.5 Somebody quotes a per-group document total as exact. What is the honest caveat?

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.