Every question of this course

Q1.1 What reason does 3GPP's working-methods document give for needing strict and fast procedures?

• Regulators set a deadline for each release
• Industry implements the specifications almost in parallel with the writing of them
• Meetings are expensive and have to be kept short

The introduction names that overlap as the reason changes have to be handled strictly and quickly, and documented so they can be traced back. §Introduction

Q1.2 How does the IETF state its goal?

• To make the Internet work better
• To represent the interests of network operators
• To publish one Internet standard every quarter

RFC 3935 is one sentence long on this point, and the whole of the rest of the mission statement hangs off it. RFC 3935, section 1

Q1.3 Why does the 3GPP Support Team register code points with outside bodies rather than a delegate doing it?

• 3GPP is not a legally constituted entity, so it registers in the name of an Organizational Partner
• Registration costs money that only the Support Team may spend
• Delegates are not allowed to contact other standards bodies

The document says so directly, and it is the clearest sign of what 3GPP legally is — a partnership, not a company. §3.2

Q1.4 A vendor says "this is a standard, so we are legally required to do it". What is wrong with that?

• Only IETF documents are binding, 3GPP ones are not
• Nothing, standards are binding on everyone in the industry
• A standard describes how to do something; an obligation comes from a law or a contract, not from the document

The drafting rules exist precisely so a reader can tell a requirement inside the document from an obligation outside it. TR 21.801, Annex E

Q1.5 Roughly how much material do the two bodies have on this machine?

• Thousands of 3GPP specifications and thousands of RFCs
• One document per release
• A few hundred documents each

The catalogue holds 3,928 3GPP specifications and the archive 9,735 RFCs, which is why nobody reads either body's output whole. 3,928 3GPP specifications in the catalogue

Q2.1 What is a Working Group, in the document's own definition?

• The permanent staff of 3GPP
• Any gathering of delegates from four or more companies
• An official subgroup of a TSG, reporting to that TSG

The definitions clause says exactly that, and it is what makes the two-layer decision path of later chapters work. §2

Q2.2 What is the Support Team, also called the Mobile Competence Centre?

• A committee of elected delegates
• The permanent secretariat of 3GPP
• The group that writes the radio specifications

It is permanent staff, not delegates, and it edits every specification once the document is under change control. §2

Q2.3 Which of these must every 3GPP specification have?

• Two prime responsible TSGs
• A named chair from the Support Team
• A rapporteur, who is normally a delegate from a member company

The characteristics list makes one prime responsible TSG and one rapporteur compulsory; secondary groups are optional. §4.2

Q2.4 The catalogue records 685 specifications under the group code S5. May a chapter say that means SA5?

• No — no file read here states what the short codes stand for
• Yes, but only for the SA groups
• Yes, the codes are an obvious abbreviation

The catalogue uses codes and the calendar uses names, and nothing on this machine joins the two. Guessing would be inventing evidence. 685 specifications carry the group code S5

Q2.5 The meeting calendar's last CT entry is in 2028. What does that tell you?

• CT will be closed down in 2028
• The data was collected in 2028
• The calendar holds scheduled meetings as well as held ones

A last date in the calendar is not "the most recent meeting", and a first date is not a founding date either. 4,371 of them are 3GPP meetings, from 1998-12-07 to 2028-06-13

Q3.1 What has to happen before substantial work starts in a working group?

• A draft has to reach version 1.0.0
• Four member organizations have to publish a press release
• The responsible TSG has to take a decision

A work item description goes to the TSG, and no substantial work begins in the working group before that decision. §6.1

Q3.2 What does a Study Item produce?

• A Technical Report — a feasibility study
• A change request
• A Technical Specification

A study results in a report; if the outcome is positive, feature work items follow and those produce specifications. §6.0.2

Q3.3 Which of these is NOT required of every work item?

• Approval by all four TSGs
• A precise scope
• A named rapporteur

Scope, schedule, rapporteur and at least four supporting member organizations are the list. One responsible TSG decides. §6.0.2

Q3.4 A draft is renumbered from 0.4.0 to 1.0.0. What has happened?

• It is judged stable enough to be shown to the TSG for information
• The first release of the feature has shipped
• It has been approved and is now under change control

Major version 1 means presented for information, at roughly 60% stability. Approval is a later step, at 2.0.0. §4.0A

Q3.5 A document approved for Release 4 goes from version 2.0.0 to which version?

• 3.0.0
• 4.0.0
• 2.1.0

On approval the first digit becomes the release number, so the jump skips 3.y.z entirely — there is no Release 1999 version of it. §4.1.1

Q3.6 What does "stage 2" mean?

• The second draft of a specification
• How the network is organised to deliver the service
• The testing phase

Stage 1 is the service from the user's side, stage 2 the organisation of network functions, stage 3 the switching and signalling detail. §4.1

Q4.1 Who may raise a change request?

• Any individual member, who brings it to the responsible group
• Only the rapporteur of the specification
• Only the Support Team

The bar is low on purpose; the filtering happens at the working group and again at the plenary, not at the door. TR 21.900, clause 4.6.1

Q4.2 A change request is rejected. What happens to its number?

• It is freed and given to the next change request
• It is never reused, even after a rejection
• It is reused only within the same meeting

Numbers are permanent so the record of what was proposed and refused stays readable years later. TR 21.900, clause 4.6.1

Q4.3 Which change request category means a correction?

• Category D
• Category F
• Category B

A is a mirror of an earlier release, B adds or removes a feature, C modifies one, D is editorial and F is a correction. §4.6.2

Q4.4 A change request is approved and the specification was at version 7.2.1. What is it now?

• 7.2.2
• 7.3.0
• 8.0.0

A technical change moves the middle digit and resets the last one. The first digit only changes when the release does. §4.1.1

Q4.5 A release has been frozen. What may still be changed in it?

• Any change, as long as the TSG approves it
• Nothing at all
• Only essential corrections, plus alignment changes

Freezing is not closing. Closing is the state where no change of any kind is permitted any more. TR 21.900, clause 2

Q4.6 An essential error is found in a feature that exists in three releases. What does 3GPP do?

• Writes one change request per affected release, decided together
• Withdraws the specification
• Fixes the newest release and lets the others be

Those are mirror change requests, independently numbered and approved as a group so the releases stay consistent with each other. TR 21.900, clause 4.10.2

Q5.1 What is an Internet-Draft?

• A published standard awaiting a number
• The IETF's equivalent of a change request
• A working document with no formal status, which may change or vanish at any time

RFC 2026 says so in as many words, and adds that nobody may claim compliance with one. RFC 2026, section 2.2

Q5.2 Who sits in the IESG?

• Every working group chair
• Delegates elected by the member companies
• The area directors as a body, together with the IETF Chair

There are no member companies, and the IESG is the body that approves IETF standards. RFC 2418, section 1

Q5.3 How long is an IETF-wide Last Call at minimum?

• Two weeks, or four if no working group was behind the document
• One meeting cycle
• Six months

The longer period exists because a document with no working group behind it has had less public scrutiny already. RFC 2026

Q5.4 How many maturity levels does the standards track have today?

• Two — Proposed Standard and Internet Standard
• One
• Three, as originally defined

RFC 6410 replaced the original three-tier ladder with a two-tier one. RFC 6410, section 2

Q5.5 A standard needs a technical change. What happens to the published RFC?

• The IESG issues an erratum that replaces the text
• It is edited and republished under the same number
• Nothing — a new document goes through the whole process, and the old one usually becomes Historic

An RFC is never edited after publication. That immutability is why an RFC number is a safe thing to cite. RFC 2026

Q5.6 Every RFC is a standard. True?

• True for numbers above 2000 only
• True, that is what the series is for
• False — Experimental, Informational, Historic and Best Current Practice sit in the same series

The category is stated in the document's own header, which is the first thing to look at before quoting one. RFC 2026

Q6.1 What are the two steps of a 3GPP decision on a change request?

• The plenary votes, then the working group confirms
• The working group agrees it, the parent TSG approves it
• The rapporteur accepts it, the Support Team publishes it

The word "agreed" belongs to the working group and means the decision still needs confirming; "approved" is the body with the final say. §4.6.4

Q6.2 Where are the rules on who may vote in 3GPP and with what weight?

• In the 3GPP Working Procedures, one level above the working methods
• Nowhere; 3GPP does not vote
• In the working-methods document, next to the document statuses

The working methods describe how documents move, not how the partnership itself decides. That is a different document. The 3GPP Working Procedures

Q6.3 Is 51% of a working group rough consensus?

• Yes, a simple majority is enough
• No — and 99% is better than rough; the chair decides
• Only if the chair is present

Rough consensus is a judgement about whether objections were answered, not a count of who is on which side. RFC 2418, section 3.3

Q6.4 Why does the IETF hum?

• Because voice votes are faster to count
• So a chair can take the sense of a room without a show of hands
• To signal that a session is over

A show of hands looks like a vote and gets counted like one, which is exactly what the body is trying to avoid. RFC 7282

Q6.5 In a 3GPP email decision, what does silence mean?

• Agreement is granted automatically
• The item is rejected
• The item is postponed to the next meeting

No comment inside the allowed period counts as agreement, which is why delegates are told to watch that they have not missed an email. TR 21.900, clause 8.6

Q7.1 What does the first pair of digits in a 3GPP specification number tell you?

• The subject area it covers
• The working group that owns it
• The release it belongs to

The number ranges are laid out in a table, and TS against TR tells a specification from a report on top of that. §4.0

Q7.2 The file 29341-420.zip contains what?

• The 420th document of meeting 29341
• Specification 29.341, version 4.2.0
• Change request 420 to specification 29.341

The file name carries the specification number and the three version digits, in that order — the document gives this exact example. §5A

Q7.3 Where do you find every change request that ever changed one specification?

• In the change history annex at the end of that specification
• In the meeting agenda
• In the vocabulary document

Each entry names the change request, the meeting and the version it produced, which is the shortest route into the history of a clause. §Annex A

Q7.4 A 3GPP specification is on the file server. Is it published?

• No, nothing is published until the release is closed
• Yes, availability and publication are the same thing
• No — the Organizational Partners that are standards bodies publish it as their own standards

The file server gives anonymous access to anyone, but formal publication happens elsewhere, by other organisations' rules. §5.1

Q7.5 A 3GPP clause says a device "must" do something. What does that mean?

• It is an absolute requirement
• Nothing — "must" is banned in 3GPP drafting, so the word carries no defined force
• It is a recommendation

In 3GPP "shall" makes a requirement and "should" a recommendation. "Must" is kept out so a standard is never mistaken for a law. TR 21.801, Annex E

Q7.6 An RFC uses the word "should" in lower case. What follows?

• The same defined meaning as SHOULD
• Ordinary English — only the capitalised spelling carries the defined meaning
• The sentence is invalid

RFC 8174 exists purely to settle this, because the lower-case usages were being read as requirements. RFC 8174, section 1