5 The specifications it creates, and the ones it changes

5.1 Two kinds of document

27 specifications are touched by this work ^[1], out of 3599 active 3GPP specifications altogether ^[2].

They fall into two groups, and the difference matters more than the number. Eleven documents exist because of this work. Sixteen existed already and are being edited.

5.2 The eleven this work created

Seven of these are study reports — homework — and four are specifications, which are rules other people have to follow.

Document	What it is	Documents naming it
TS 22.137 TS 22.137	the requirements: what the system must be able to do	119
TR 22.837 TR 22.837	the original use-case study	518
TR 23.700-14 TR 23.700-14	the architecture study	657
TS 23.137 TS 23.137	the architecture specification, being written now	262
TR 38.765 TR 38.765	the radio study report	168
TR 33.777 TR 33.777	the security and privacy study	226
TR 23.700-15 TR 23.700-15	the application-layer study	211
TS 23.138 TS 23.138	the application-layer specification, being written now	43
TR 28.893 TR 28.893	the charging study	67
TR 28.895 TR 28.895	the management study	61
TS 29.545 TS 29.545	the protocol of the new Sensing Function	1

The shape of that column says something on its own. The two architecture documents and the first use-case study carry hundreds of contributions each; the stage 3 protocol carries one. This work has been designed far longer than it has been written down.

5.3 The sixteen it changes

These are documents somebody is already building products against, which is why every edit to them arrives as a change request.

Document	What it is for	What this work puts in it
TS 23.501 TS 23.501	the 5G system architecture: the reference model and every network function	updates to the reference model and the functions; 13 change requests
TS 23.502 TS 23.502	the procedures of that system, step by step	updated procedures and service definitions; 8 change requests
TR 38.901 TR 38.901	the radio channel model every simulation starts from	sensing added by the Rel-19 study; 23 change requests
TS 38.300 TS 38.300	the overall description of the 5G radio network	listed as changed; no change request filed yet
TS 38.401 TS 38.401	the architecture of that radio network	listed as changed; no change request filed yet
TS 38.473 TS 38.473	F1AP, the protocol between the two halves of a split base station	5 documents name it
TS 22.261 TS 22.261	the overall 5G service requirements	a new section pointing at TS 22.137; 4 change requests
TS 23.255 TS 23.255	application-layer support for drone systems	22 change requests
TS 23.437 TS 23.437	spatial maps at the application layer	7 change requests
TS 23.286 TS 23.286	application-layer support for vehicle services	3 change requests
TS 23.434 TS 23.434	one of the five SA6 application-enablement documents on the list	listed as changed; nothing filed yet
TS 23.436 TS 23.436	the fifth of them	listed as changed; nothing filed yet
TS 29.510 TS 29.510	the directory every network function registers in	3 change requests
TS 29.522 TS 29.522	the interface outside applications talk to the network through	listed as changed
TS 29.571 TS 29.571	the data types every service-based interface shares	listed as changed
TR 22.870 TR 22.870	the 6G use-case study	3 documents tagged with a sensing work item

5.4 What "affected" does and does not mean

Six rows of that table have nothing filed against them yet. Being listed in a work item as a changed specification is a statement of intent by the group that opened it, not evidence that a word has moved.

The reverse trap exists too. Two further specifications were left out of these 27 because exactly one document names each of them and no work item does — one document is as likely a filing mistake as a real link ^[3].

5.5 Reading the two tables together

Follow one thread through both and the design becomes visible.

The new Sensing Function is named in the architecture study, specified in TS 23.137 and given its protocol in TS 29.545. It has to be findable, which is why TS 29.510, the directory every network function registers in, is on the list. It has to share data types, which is TS 29.571. And it has to be reachable from outside, which is TS 29.522.

That is one function and six documents, spread across stage 2 and stage 3. It is the ordinary cost of adding anything to a 5G core, and it is why a feature that sounds like one idea takes 27 documents.

5.6 Where to read this yourself

Start at TS 22.137 for what the system must do and TR 23.700-14 for how it is put together. Then pick the thread you care about: TS 23.501 and TS 23.502 for the system, TR 38.901 and TR 38.765 for the radio, TS 23.255 for drones, TS 29.545 for the protocol.

This school does not carry the text of any of these documents. It gives you the number, what the document is for, and what this work is doing inside it.