School of Specs Sensing — the network as a radarOverview

Where it stands, and how to follow it · chapter 6 of 7 · 5 minutes

6 Where it stands, read off the paper trail

What is finished, what is still running, and why version numbers and the mix of document types tell you more than any status word.

6.1 There is no status field to read

Nobody publishes a light that says a piece of 3GPP work is done. What the record holds instead is two things, and both are more honest than a status word would be.

The first is the version number of the document. A number below 1.0.0 is a draft, not a published report TR 33.777.

The second is the plenary document that approved something. A study is over when a plenary has approved its report, and until then it is not.

6.2 What is finished

The Rel-19 requirements. TS 22.137 exists at 19.1.0 and TR 22.837 at 19.4.0. SP-230506 approved the study report at SA#100, and SP-231398 approved the specification at SA#102.

The document trail agrees. The 521 documents filed under the SA1 study acronym stop at SA1#106 [1], the 128 filed under the SA1 work item stop at SA1#109 [2], and nothing has come since.

The Rel-19 channel model. TR 38.901 stands at 19.4.0 for Rel-19, and the 776 documents of the channel-model study run to RAN#112 [3].

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

6.3 What is still running

The security study is not finished. TR 33.777 stands at 0.6.0, and its 227 documents run to SA3#128 [4].

Neither are the two SA5 studies. TR 28.893, on charging, stands at 1.0.0 and TR 28.895, on management, at 0.3.0; both sets of documents run to SA5#167.

And the rule-writing is running in four groups at once — Sensing-ARC in SA2 on stage 2, Sensing-APP in SA6 on the application layer, NR_Sensing_bis in RAN3 on the radio side, and Sensing-CT in CT4 on stage 3.

None of the four 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 — all drafts.

6.4 When the version number is not enough

Two rows in this record show why the version number has to be read together with the document trail rather than instead of it.

TR 28.893, the charging study, stands at 1.0.0 — not a draft number by the rule above. Its 67 documents still run to SA5#167 and the study is still running [5]. A version number tells you what state the text is in, not whether the group has stopped arguing.

The stage 3 work goes the other way. The whole of Sensing-CT, CT4's contribution so far, is nine documents at a single meeting, and the RAN specification work item has exactly one document against it [6]. Neither of those is a version number at all, and both say more about how far along the work is than any version would.

The groups behind each of these are in The map of the groups, and where the weight sat.

6.5 The shape of the pile

The mix of document types is the most useful single view of this area.

Type Count What it means
pCR [7] 2036 proposed text for a study report
discussion [8] 968 argument, not text
change request [9] 136 an edit to a published document
draft report [10] 41 a whole report put up for approval
liaison [11] 38 a letter to another group

Well over half of everything filed is proposed study text. Against that, 136 change requests is almost nothing. This is an area still deciding what it wants, not one maintaining something it built.

The release split says the same. 1416 documents are marked Rel-19 [12] and 2069 Rel-20 [13], so the larger half of this subject sits in the release that has not finished.

So does the year curve.

Filed in Documents
2022 205 [14]
2023 405 [15]
2024 476 [16]
2025 1297 [17]
2026 so far 1031 [18]

Those five figures add up to less than 3492, because 78 documents carry no upload time at all [19]. And the whole 3492 is a floor: 440 more documents about integrated sensing carry no work item acronym and are in none of these numbers [20].

One company stands out in the pile. OPPO filed 163 documents, more than any other single source [21].

6.6 Studies are reopened, not replaced

A reader following this work by document number will keep meeting the same study under a new number, and should not read that as a restart.

The SA1 study was revised at SA#96 by SP-220717. The first radio study was revised at RAN#103 by RP-240799 and again at RAN#105 by RP-242348. The architecture study was revised at SA#108 by SP-250833, after SP-250809 was itself revised the same day. The second radio study was revised at RAN#109 by RP-252819 and at RAN#110 by RP-253246, which is the one the work plan now points at.

The acronym stays the same through all of that. That is why the acronym, and not the document number, is the thing to search by.

6.7 Where to read this yourself

The version numbers in this chapter belong to TS 22.137, TR 22.837, TR 38.901, TR 23.700-14, TR 38.765, TR 23.700-15, TR 33.777, TR 28.893, TR 28.895, TS 23.137, TS 23.138 and TS 29.545.

This school does not carry the text of any of them, and it holds no date for anything — no day a release froze, no day a study ended. If a conversation needs a date, it needs the 3GPP work plan, not this course.

Where the numbers in this chapter come from

  1. 521 documents carrying the work item FS_Sensing rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names FS_Sensing; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  2. 128 documents carrying the work item Sensing rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names Sensing; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  3. 776 documents carrying the work item FS_Sensing_NR rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names FS_Sensing_NR; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  4. 227 documents carrying the work item FS_Sensing_SEC rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names FS_Sensing_SEC; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  5. 67 documents carrying the work item FS_Sensing_CH rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names FS_Sensing_CH; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  6. 1 documents carrying the work item NR_Sensing_bis-Core rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym column names NR_Sensing_bis-Core; the first and last meeting are those of its earliest and latest upload time, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  7. 2036 Sensing documents of type pCR Sensing documents whose type column is exactly pCR, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  8. 968 Sensing documents of type discussion Sensing documents whose type column is exactly discussion, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  9. 136 Sensing documents of type CR Sensing documents whose type column is exactly CR, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  10. 41 Sensing documents of type draft TR Sensing documents whose type column is exactly draft TR, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  11. 38 Sensing documents of type LS out Sensing documents whose type column is exactly LS out, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  12. 1416 Sensing documents marked Rel-19 Sensing documents whose release column is Rel-19, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  13. 2069 Sensing documents marked Rel-20 Sensing documents whose release column is Rel-20, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  14. 205 Sensing documents filed in 2022 Sensing documents whose upload time starts 2022, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  15. 405 Sensing documents filed in 2023 Sensing documents whose upload time starts 2023, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  16. 476 Sensing documents filed in 2024 Sensing documents whose upload time starts 2024, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  17. 1297 Sensing documents filed in 2025 Sensing documents whose upload time starts 2025, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  18. 1031 Sensing documents filed in 2026 Sensing documents whose upload time starts 2026, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  19. 78 Sensing documents carry no upload time Sensing documents whose upload column is empty, which is why the per-year counts do not add up to the total, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  20. 440 Sensing documents carry no work item acronym documents whose title contains "integrated sensing" or "ISAC" and whose work item acronym column is empty — proposals filed before a work item existed, and every plenary approval document, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
  21. OPPO filed 163 Sensing documents, more than anyone else Sensing documents grouped by the source column, largest first; the column is free text, so one company under two spellings counts twice, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 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 TR 33.777 stands at version 0.6.0. What does that tell you?

Q6.2 Which of these is finished?

Q6.3 2036 of the 3492 documents are pCRs. What does that mix say about the work?

Q6.4 1416 documents are marked Rel-19 and 2069 Rel-20. What follows?

Q6.5 How is a 3GPP study item extended?

Q6.6 Which company filed more sensing documents than any other?

This chapter was built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A fresher build of the register may hold different numbers.