12 Where the work stands, and why there are no dates

12.1 The state of every piece

Eight pieces of work, and each one is in exactly one of three states: approved, drafted, or barely begun.

Piece	Group	State
Stage 1 requirements, Rel-19	SA1	finished — TS 22.137 at 19.1.0
Use-case study, Rel-19	SA1	finished — TR 22.837 at 19.4.0
Channel model, Rel-19	RAN1	finished — TR 38.901 at 19.4.0
Architecture study, Rel-20	SA2	finished — TR 23.700-14 at 20.0.0
Radio study, Rel-20	RAN1	finished — TR 38.765 at 20.0.0
Application study, Rel-20	SA6	finished — TR 23.700-15 at 20.1.0
Security study, Rel-20	SA3	running — TR 33.777 at 0.6.0
Charging and management, Rel-20	SA5	running — TR 28.893 at 1.0.0, TR 28.895 at 0.3.0

And four pieces of rule-writing, all of them open:

Rule-writing	Group	State
Sensing-ARC, stage 2	SA2	TS 23.137 at 0.3.0
Sensing-APP, application layer	SA6	TS 23.138 at 0.1.0
NR_Sensing_bis, radio	RAN3	one document filed
Sensing-CT, stage 3	CT4	TS 29.545 at 0.1.0

12.2 What "finished" means, piece by piece

The Rel-19 requirements are done. TS 22.137 exists at 19.1.0 and TR 22.837 at 19.4.0 TS 22.137 TR 22.837. The plenary approved both: SP-230506 the report at SA#100 SP-230506 and SP-231398 the specification at SA#102 SP-231398.

The record backs that up from the other side too. The last of the SA1 study's 521 documents is from SA1#106 ^[2], and the last of the work item's 128 from SA1#109 ^[3]. Nothing since.

The Rel-19 channel model is done. The channel-model study's 776 documents run to RAN#112 ^[4] and TR 38.901 stands at 19.4.0 TR 38.901.

Three Rel-20 studies are done. The architecture study, approved as TR 23.700-14 at 20.0.0 by SP-260110 at SA#111 TR 23.700-14 SP-260110. The radio study, approved as TR 38.765 at 20.0.0 by RP-261477 at RAN#112 TR 38.765 RP-261477. The application study, approved as TR 23.700-15 at 20.1.0 by SP-260185 at SA#111 TR 23.700-15 SP-260185.

Three studies are still running. Security, at 0.6.0 TR 33.777, with 227 documents running to SA3#128 ^[5]. Charging, at 1.0.0 TR 28.893, with 67 documents ^[6]. Management, at 0.3.0 TR 28.895, with 61 documents ^[7]. Both SA5 sets of documents run to SA5#167.

Each of those three finished Release 20 studies now has rule-writing hanging off it, and the work items say so plainly. SA6's is typical:

Four pieces of rule-writing are running at once. SA2 writes stage 2, SA6 the application layer, RAN3 the radio side, CT4 stage 3 Sensing-ARC Sensing-APP NR_Sensing_bis Sensing-CT. None has finished: TS 23.137 stands at 0.3.0, TS 23.138 at 0.1.0 and TS 29.545 at 0.1.0 TS 23.137 TS 23.138 TS 29.545.

12.3 What "approved" buys you, and what it does not

The word does different work depending on what was approved, and this is the single most common way a state like the one above gets over-read.

An approved study report means a group finished its homework and the plenary accepted the document. It does not mean anybody has to implement anything. TR 23.700-14, TR 38.765 and TR 23.700-15 are all approved and none of them is binding on anyone.

An approved specification is a rule. TS 22.137 is one — and it is a stage 1 rule, which says what the system must be able to do, not how any of it works.

A draft below 1.0.0 is neither. TS 23.137 at 0.3.0 is text being written, which may change entirely before it is approved.

12.4 The direction of travel

Two figures point the same way.

The document count is rising, year by year of filing:

Filed in	Documents
2022	205 [8]
2023	405 [9]
2024	476 [10]
2025	1297 [11]
2026, so far	1031 [12]

And 2069 documents are marked Release 20 against 1416 marked Release 19 ^{[13] [14]}, so most of this work is ahead of the record rather than behind it.

12.5 Why this chapter carries no dates

This is the point at which most accounts of a 3GPP subject start predicting, and this one cannot.

There is no date for anything in this record. It holds meeting codes and version numbers. SP-260110 was approved at SA#111; TR 38.765 stands at 20.0.0; the security study's documents run to SA3#128. Not one of those is a date, and nothing here turns a meeting code into one.

The only time-like figures anywhere in this course are the per-year document counts, and those are counts of when papers were uploaded — not of when anything was decided, and not complete either, since 78 documents carry no upload time at all ^[15].

So the honest form of the answer to "when will sensing be ready" is: this record cannot say. What it can say is what state each document is in, which is the table at the top of this chapter, and that is a better basis for a guess than a date somebody half-remembers.

12.6 Reading a meeting code as a position

Meeting codes are not dates, but they are an order, and that is enough to say where a piece of work stopped.

The last of FS_Sensing's 521 documents is at SA1#106 ^[2] while SA1 itself has documents up to SA1#109 SA1. So the study went quiet while its own group carried on with the work item that followed — which is the signature of a finished study, not an abandoned one.

The 227 documents under FS_Sensing_SEC run to SA3#128 ^[5], and SA3's own last meeting in this record is SA3#128 SA3. The study is current: it was still being worked at the newest meeting the record holds.

That comparison — a work item's last meeting against its group's last meeting — is the closest this data comes to saying "recently", and it is worth preferring to any guess about calendars.

12.7 What else would change this picture

Three things to watch, each of which is checkable in the same record.

• Change requests against TS 23.501 TS 23.501. Thirteen so far. When the 5G architecture carries sensing properly, the rest of the core network has to take it into account.

• TS 23.137 crossing 1.0.0 TS 23.137. That is the moment the stage 2 specification stops being a draft.

• A second document under NR_Sensing_bis-Core ^[16]. One document is a work item that has just opened; a run of them is a work item under way.

12.8 Where to read the real thing

State comes from two places, and neither is carried here.

• The specification pages themselves, for the current version of TS 23.137, TS 23.138, TS 29.545 and TR 33.777 TS 23.137 TS 23.138 TS 29.545 TR 33.777.

• The four work item descriptions, for what each group has promised: RP-261566, SP-260297, SP-260317 and CP-261274 RP-261566 SP-260297 SP-260317 CP-261274.

Next: how to follow this area yourself, including the traps that make it hard to search — How to follow this area yourself.