Every question of this course

Q1.1 In TS 38.108's own words, what is a Satellite Access Node?

• The earth station on the ground, under a shorter name
• The satellite, and only the satellite
• A node that terminates the NR user and control protocols towards the phone, and takes in both the payload on the platform and the satellite-gateway

The definition says the node provides NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the phone and encompasses a transparent payload on board an NTN platform, with satellite-gateway and gNB functions. It is not one box in one place. "Satellite Access Node" as 38.108 defines it

Q1.2 What is the difference between a transparent payload and a regenerative one?

• A transparent payload shifts the frequency, filters and amplifies; a regenerative one digitally transforms the signal, which may include demodulation and decoding
• A transparent payload is in low orbit, a regenerative one is geostationary
• A transparent payload carries data, a regenerative one carries only signalling

TR 38.863 defines the transparent payload as changing the frequency carrier, filtering and amplifying. TR 38.742 defines the regenerative one as transforming the signal, and that transformation is digital processing. "Regenerative payload" as 38.742 defines it

Q1.3 Which of these is the feeder link?

• The link between two satellites
• The link between the satellite-gateway and the satellite
• The link between the satellite and the phone

TS 38.108 defines the feeder link as the wireless link between satellite-gateway and satellite. The satellite-to-phone hop is the service link. "feeder link" as 38.108 defines it

Q1.4 TR 23.700-19 defines phone-to-satellite-to-phone traffic. What makes it different?

• The two phones must be in the same country
• It works only in geostationary orbit
• The user traffic does not transit through the ground segment

The definition is communication between devices under the coverage of one or more serving satellites, using satellite access, without the user traffic transiting through the ground segment. "UE-Satellite-UE Communication" as 23.700-19 defines it

Q1.5 How high is a geostationary orbit, in the words of TS 38.108?

• 35,786 km above the equator
• 357,860 km above the equator
• 3,578 km above the equator

The definition is a circular orbit at 35,786 km above the Earth's equator, following the direction of the Earth's rotation, so the object appears motionless to somebody standing on the ground. "Geostationary Earth Orbit" as 38.108 defines it

Q2.1 What reason does the Release 17 internet-of-things work item give for itself?

• Operators asked for a second radio in case the first failed
• Sensors and trackers need to work in remote places with low or no cellular coverage, transport and logistics first among them
• Satellite capacity was cheaper than building masts

The justification opens by saying IoT operation is critical in remote areas with low or no cellular connectivity for many industries, and the first it names is transportation and logistics. why LTE_NBIOT_eMTC_NTN was proposed

Q2.2 What does the Release 18 justification say Release 17 had assumed?

• Regenerative payloads only, in low orbit only
• Any device, any orbit, any payload
• Transparent payloads, geosynchronous and non-geosynchronous orbits, power class 3 devices with a satellite navigation receiver, in earth-fixed or moving cells

The justification restates the Release 17 scope in one sentence, and every one of those four limits is in it. Release 18 exists to widen them. why NR_NTN_enh-Core was proposed

Q2.3 Why does the Ku band work item say it is bringing that band into 3GPP?

• Because the band is allocated for primary satellite use in all three international regions
• Because devices for it were already on sale
• Because no other band was left

The justification says the Ku band is allocated for primary satellite use for ITU regions 1, 2 and 3, and that the work therefore introduces it into the specifications according to those definitions. why NR_NTN_Ku_bands-Core was proposed

Q2.4 What does the time-division mode for the internet-of-things radio say it is for?

• Shorter call setup
• Using only some of the subframes, so the equipment draws less power, and extending the radio to a satellite system with unpaired spectrum
• Higher data rates

The proposal describes using radio resources in a periodic subset of the uplink and downlink subframes, thus limiting power consumption, and says the feature extends operation to an additional non-geosynchronous satellite system. why IoT_NTN_TDD-Core was proposed

Q2.5 How many of the 155 short names in this subject carry a quoted objective or justification?

• All 155
• None, the register holds only counts
• 41 of them, the ones carrying at least 200 documents

The register quotes the objective and usually the justification of the 41 acronyms carrying at least 200 documents. For the other 114 a chapter may say what the work plan calls them and nothing about what they promised. 155 Satellites work item acronyms

Q3.1 A radio feature in the work plan usually appears under more than one short name. Which split is it?

• One name per company that proposed it
• One name per release
• A core part, a performance part and a conformance part, each its own row

The register carries each part as its own acronym, ending -Core, -Perf and -UEConTest, and each sits on its own work plan row. 183 Satellites rows in the work plan

Q3.2 Somebody says "there are 155 satellite work items". What is missing from that?

• Whether they mean short names or work plan rows — there are 155 of the first and 183 of the second
• Nothing, it is exact
• The number is 183

The 155 short names sit on 183 rows, because some names appear on more than one row. A count of this work has to say which of the two it means. 155 Satellites work item acronyms

Q3.3 Which release carries the most work plan rows of this subject?

• Release 20, with 41
• Release 19, with 58
• Release 17, with 23

58 rows are planned for Release 19, against 47 for Release 18 and 41 for Release 20. Release 17 carries 23. Rel-19

Q3.4 Which group carries more documents of this subject than any other?

• The RAN plenary, with 1273
• SA2, with 3588
• RAN4, with 7490

RAN4 carries 7490 of these documents over 34 of its meetings, more than any other group code in this register. SA2 is the largest outside RAN. RAN4

Q3.5 What is on the record for the Release 8 row in this subject?

• It is a stage 1 positioning row that carries no document and names no describing paper
• It produced the first satellite study report
• It is the oldest radio work item, with several hundred documents

The Release 8 row is a stage 1 row for positioning by satellite navigation. It carries no documents and the work plan names no document that describes it. ANSS

Q4.1 Which short name carries more documents than any other in this register?

• FS_NR_nonterr_nw, the first study, with 124
• IoT_NTN_TDD-Core, the time-division mode, with 354
• NR_NTN_solutions-Core, the core part of the first Release 17 rules, with 4346

4346 documents carry NR_NTN_solutions-Core, the largest of the 155 short names here. The first study carries 124, which is the shape of a subject nobody had committed to yet. 4346 documents carrying the work item NR_NTN_solutions-Core

Q4.2 What did the Release 15 and Release 16 radio studies produce?

• Two study reports, TR 38.811 and then TR 38.821
• Nothing that was written down
• The first satellite base station specification

The Release 15 study produced TR 38.811 and the Release 16 solutions study produced TR 38.821. Neither is a specification; both are homework the rule-writing then rested on. FS_NR_NTN_solutions

Q4.3 Why does one Release 17 satellite work item sit in CT and SA rather than in RAN?

• It was a band item and bands are not RAN work
• It is the architecture support the older packet core needed for the internet-of-things satellite radio
• RAN refused it

IoT_SAT_ARCH_EPS is architecture support for NB-IoT and eMTC non-terrestrial networks in the evolved packet system. Its leadership line names SA2, and its documents sit at CT and SA meetings. IoT_SAT_ARCH_EPS

Q4.4 What does the Release 20 study report TR 38.742 say it is about?

• Adding a new satellite band
• Testing devices against the Release 19 requirements
• Keeping the radio working when the satellite navigation signal is temporarily unavailable

Its scope says it studies resilient operation targeting Release 20 enhancements, and evaluates solutions for scenarios where the navigation signal is temporarily unavailable while service is maintained. the scope of 38.742

Q4.5 What is the objective of the Release 17 internet-of-things satellite work item?

• One sentence — specify support of NB-IoT and eMTC over NTN
• To replace the older radio with the new one over satellite
• To define a new orbit class for sensors

The objective really is that short. The work started on both radios at the August 2021 meetings, and the report behind it is TR 36.763. the objective of LTE_NBIOT_eMTC_NTN

Q5.1 What marks a piece of this work as belonging to the system half rather than the radio half?

• The work plan carries a column that says so
• It was opened at the SA plenary
• Its short name is spelled 5GSAT, and its leadership line names SA or CT groups

The register labels no halves. The split shows in the short names and in the leadership line each work item carries, and that line is what any claim about who led what is read from. 5GSAT_ARCH-CT

Q5.2 What is phase 2 of the 5GSAT line about?

• Coverage that comes and goes, because a satellite is overhead and then is not
• Billing a satellite call
• A satellite that carries a whole base station

Its work item says it specifies changes to the 5G core and the older 4G core to support satellite discontinuous coverage. the objective of 5GSAT_Ph2

Q5.3 Which three things does the phase 3 protocol work item name in its own justification?

• Charging, security and management
• Regenerative payload, store-and-forward operation, and phone-to-satellite-to-phone communication
• New bands, higher power classes and a 3 MHz channel

Those are the three key issues its justification names, studied by SA2 and written up in TR 23.700-29. why 5GSAT_Ph3_ARCH was proposed

Q5.4 What is satellite backhaul, as against satellite access?

• The phone talks to the satellite with no mast in between
• A satellite that relays to another satellite
• An ordinary mast serves the phone, and the satellite carries the link behind the mast

Backhaul runs the other way round. Nothing reaches the phone from orbit; the satellite sits behind a normal mast, on the way back to the operator's network. the objective of 5GSATB

Q5.5 What is the first work task of the phase 4 architecture study?

• A voice call over a geostationary satellite through the narrowband internet-of-things radio, into the older packet core
• A new speech codec
• Phone-to-satellite-to-phone communication

The study's objective names it as work task 1 — an IMS voice call over GEO via NB-IoT NTN connecting to EPC. the objective of FS_5GSAT_Ph4_ARC

Q6.1 What does TS 38.108 cover?

• How a satellite operator is billed
• The minimum radio characteristics and performance of an in-band satellite access node
• The signalling a phone sends to the core network over satellite

Its scope says it establishes the minimum RF characteristics and minimum performance requirements of NR and NB-IoT operation in an NTN NR in-band Satellite Access Node. the scope of 38.108

Q6.2 Which document carries the most documents of this subject?

• TS 38.108, the satellite access node's radio, with 465
• TS 23.501, the 5G system architecture, with 486
• TS 38.133, the radio resource management requirements, with 1426

TS 38.133 carries 1426 documents of this subject, 1306 of them change requests, which is more than any other specification in this register. TS 38.133

Q6.3 Why does RAN4 carry more documents of this subject than any other group?

• A large share of the short names are one radio band each, and RAN4 leads every one of them
• It runs the plenary
• It writes the study reports

Each band item names RAN WG4 as its leading group, is split into a core part and usually a performance part, and names the same handful of documents over again. RAN4

Q6.4 What is the difference between the 102 specifications in this register and the 3599 in the catalogue?

• The 102 are the satellite-only ones and the 3599 include reports
• The 102 were selected by this subject's rule; the 3599 is every catalogue row marked active
• The 102 are the newest ones

They answer different questions. One is a count of what this subject touches, the other a count of the whole active catalogue. 102 specifications this work touches

Q6.5 What did the Ku band work item give as its reason?

• No other band was left
• Devices already supported it
• The Ku band is allocated for primary satellite use in all three international regions

Its justification says the Ku band is allocated for primary satellite use for ITU regions 1, 2 and 3, so the work introduces it into 3GPP's specifications. why NR_NTN_Ku_bands-Core was proposed

Q7.1 What does the work plan give you about how far a piece of work has got?

• A planned day and a completion value between 0 and 1, and nothing else
• The date the release froze
• A status word — running, stopped or finished

There is no status field. The row carries planned days and a completion value, so every sentence about progress here is built from those two or it is invented. 116 of the acronyms carry a completion value of 1

Q7.2 Which part of Release 19's radio work is clearly not done?

• The performance part
• The conformance part, at 0.14 with a planned finish in 2027
• The core part

The core and performance parts both stand at 1. The conformance part, which is RAN5's, stands at 0.14 and is planned to finish in 2027. NR_NTN_Ph3-UEConTest

Q7.3 6568 documents name satellites or NTN in their title and carry no work item short name. What does that mean for every count in this course?

• They are too high
• They exclude change requests
• They are floors, not totals

Everything here was filtered by work item short name, so those 6568 are in none of the numbers — including plenary approval papers and anything filed before a work item existed. 6568 documents name satellites or NTN in their title and carry no work item

Q7.4 One work plan row has the word STOPPED at the front of its own title. What is that word?

• Part of the row's own title, and nothing more
• A note added by the group that owns it
• A status field the plan carries for every row

The plan has no status field at all. That word is inside the title somebody typed, which is why no other row can be read the same way. NR_NTN_combinedLband-Perf

Q7.5 Which of these can this record tell you?

• The day Release 20 freezes
• Which document the work plan points at for a given work item
• Why a group settled on one solution rather than another

The register holds work plan rows, meeting codes, version numbers, planned days and counts. It holds no release date and no reason for any decision. RP-261568