Who is building it, and where to look · chapter 3 of 4 · 4 minutes
3 Who is building it, and what exists on paper
The groups that share this work, how much each has filed, and which documents are finished, which are drafts and which are only planned.
3.1 Nobody owns this subject
There is no sensing group in 3GPP and no sensing document. 79 separate meetings have had a sensing paper on the table [1], and 3492 meeting documents have been filed [2].
3GPP splits a subject by rung rather than by topic. One group settles what the system must do, another how it is put together, another the bytes on the wire, and the radio is a world of its own. Sensing arrived at each of them in turn.
| Group | What it did here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| SA2 SA2 | how the system is put together | 995 |
| RAN1 RAN1 | the radio measurements | 872 |
| SA1 SA1 | what the system must do | 640 |
| SA6 SA6 | services built on top | 284 |
| RAN3 RAN3 | the radio interfaces, and now the radio rules | 259 |
| SA3 SA3 | security and privacy | 227 |
| SA5 SA5 | charging and management | 127 |
| CT4 CT4 | the protocol detail | 9 |
Two plenaries sit above those groups and are where the work was opened — the RAN plenary with 53 documents and the SA plenary with 25. RAN2 has exactly one document; the register does not say what kind.
3.2 What exists on paper
Two things tell you the state of a 3GPP document, and neither is a status field. The first is its version number — anything below 1.0.0 is a draft. The second is whether a plenary has approved it.
| Document | What it is | State |
|---|---|---|
| TS 22.137 TS 22.137 | the requirements | done, at 19.1.0 |
| TR 22.837 TR 22.837 | the use-case study | done, at 19.4.0 |
| TR 38.901 TR 38.901 | the radio channel model, with sensing added | done, at 19.4.0 |
| TR 23.700-14 TR 23.700-14 | the architecture study | done, at 20.0.0 |
| TR 38.765 TR 38.765 | the radio study | done, at 20.0.0 |
| TR 23.700-15 TR 23.700-15 | the application-layer study | done, at 20.1.0 |
| TR 33.777 TR 33.777 | the security study | draft, at 0.6.0 |
| TR 28.893 TR 28.893 | the charging study | still running, at 1.0.0 |
| TR 28.895 TR 28.895 | the management study | draft, at 0.3.0 |
| TS 23.137 TS 23.137 | the architecture specification | draft, at 0.3.0 |
| TS 23.138 TS 23.138 | the application-layer specification | draft, at 0.1.0 |
| TS 29.545 TS 29.545 | the protocol of the new Sensing Function | draft, at 0.1.0 |
The studies are approved on the record too. SP-260110 approved the architecture study at SA#111, RP-261477 the radio study at RAN#112, and SP-260185 the application study at SA#111.
3.3 Twenty-seven documents in all
Beyond the twelve above, this work also edits documents that already exist — the 5G architecture TS 23.501, the procedures TS 23.502, the drone services document TS 23.255 and others. 27 specifications are touched altogether [3], out of 3599 active 3GPP specifications [4].
Every count in this chapter is a floor rather than a total. A further 440 documents about integrated sensing carry no work item acronym at all and are in none of these figures [5].
3.4 What the pile is made of
One more figure says more about the state of this work than any other. Of the 3492 documents, 2036 are proposed text for a study report [6] and only 136 are change requests to a published document [7].
That is a subject still deciding what it wants, not one maintaining something it has built.
It is also getting busier.
| Filed in | Documents |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 205 [8] |
| 2023 | 405 [9] |
| 2024 | 476 [10] |
| 2025 | 1297 [11] |
| 2026 so far | 1031 [12] |
Those figures add up to less than 3492 because 78 documents carry no upload time at all [13].
3.5 Where to read this yourself
TR 23.700-14 is the fullest finished picture of how the system would work. TS 23.137 is what that picture is turning into, and it is a draft.
This school does not carry the text of either, or of the others. What it gives you is the number, what the document is for, and whether it is finished.
Where the numbers in this chapter come from
- 79 meetings have had Sensing documents on the table distinct values of the meeting column over the Sensing documents, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
- 3492 Sensing meeting documents rows of the tdoc table whose work item acronym is one of the 14 Sensing acronyms (FS_Sensing, FS_Sensing_APP, FS_Sensing_ARC, FS_Sensing_CH, FS_Sensing_NR, FS_Sensing_NR_bis, FS_Sensing_OAM, FS_Sensing_SEC, NR_Sensing_bis, NR_Sensing_bis-Core, Sensing, Sensing-APP, Sensing-ARC, Sensing-CT), asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/api.sqlite on 2026-08-04
- 27 specifications this work touches catalogue rows for every specification named by at least 2 Sensing documents or listed as impacted by a work item, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
- 3599 active 3GPP specifications altogether catalogue rows whose active column is yes, asked of /var/www/whatthespec.net/data/database/api/spec_catalog.sqlite on 2026-08-04
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Check yourself
Answers appear when you pick one, with where they come from.
Q3.1 How many separate meetings have had a sensing document on the table?
79 meetings, across the working groups and the two plenaries above them. 3492 is the document count and 14 is the number of acronyms. 79 meetings have had Sensing documents on the table
Q3.2 Which group has filed the most documents on this subject?
SA2, the group that designs how the system is put together, has the largest count. RAN1 has spent the most meetings on it. SA2
Q3.3 TS 23.137 stands at version 0.3.0. What does that mean?
None of the four rule-writing items has produced a published specification yet. TS 23.138 and TS 29.545 are at 0.1.0 for the same reason. TS 23.137
Q3.4 3492 documents carry a sensing work item acronym. Is that the whole record?
440 documents whose title says integrated sensing or ISAC carry no acronym at all, including every plenary approval document. They are not in the 3492. 440 Sensing documents carry no work item acronym
This chapter was built from a source register generated 2026-08-04. A fresher build of the register may hold different numbers.