This blog is a repost from Urgent Communications, originally published on August 18, 2025.
This blog post is part of the “Tech Talk” series focused on the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet Authority) standards development activities to support public safety. This post recaps discussions linked to public safety and other related topics from the 3GPP plenary meetings that were conducted in June 2025. The FirstNet Authority represented public safety interests at the plenary meetings.
You may have never given it much thought, but standards impact American lives every day. Each time you need to replace an appliance, you know the plug that it comes with will work in your home, because of standards. In the same way, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) works to drive standards for public-safety telecommunications.
Through the act of Congress that created the FirstNet Authority, we are mandated to work within standards bodies—such as 3GPP—to make sure the needs of public safety are represented for broadband networks today and tomorrow. Not only do standards help promote consistent safety, quality, efficiency and compatibility, but they also help drive innovation for the future and ensure that modern technologies evolve to meet the current and future needs of first responders.
In June 2025, the FirstNet Authority standards team participated in the quarterly 3GPP Plenary meetings in Prague, Czech Republic, which included the 3GPP Radio Access Networks (RAN), Service and Systems Access (SA), and Core Network and Terminals (CT) groups. 3GPP is a partnership focused on developing specifications for mobile technologies by bringing together organizations from around the world. These meetings happen quarterly and ensure compatibility between different networks and vendors. The FirstNet Authority attends such meetings to represent public safety’s needs and advocate for continued American leadership for public safety communications.
The following includes details about each of the 3GPP Plenary Technical Specifications Group (TSG) meetings, along with input from the TSG working groups activity focused on progressing features important to public safety.
The Radio Access Network TSG Plenary
The RAN Plenary is responsible for defining the requirements, functions, and interfaces of the 3GPP radio access network. The RAN Plenary meeting included more than 400 attendees.
The FirstNet Authority continues leading and championing the advancements of public-safety communications into the global standards of 3GPP, including current work for 5G-Advance (5G-A) and 6G.
During this plenary, a considerable amount of time was spent on the selection of topics, features, and their scopes for Release 20 (R20). R20 includes normative work on features related to 5G-A and study on 6G. R20 is the sixth release of 5G and the third release of 5G-A focusing solely on addressing critical commercial needs and the beginning of 6G study.
The RAN Plenary approved a new work-item description (WID) about introduction of new radio (NR) time division duplex (TDD) in the 4.9 GHz Band for U.S. operation.
A new NR TDD operating band will be defined as part of this WID to ensure that the 4940–4990 MHz band (4.9 GHz band) is efficiently and intensely utilized for nationwide public-safety coverage in the U.S., in line with the framework identified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Another important feature for public safety is multi-hop relaying, which is critical to extend off-network coverage for public-safety users. In addition, the normative work on Release 19 (R19) layer 2 user equipment (UE)-to-Network (U2N) relaying—designed to support two additional hops relays on top of a Release17 U2N relay—made solid progress and is on track to be completed by December 2025.
The RAN plenary also approved the scope of the study on 6G Radio, providing an opportunity to revisit the foundations of radio-system design—free from the constraints of backward compatibility—and thus focusing on a transformative leap in capability, efficiency, and simplicity. The study aims to develop one non-backward compatible radio-access technology (termed as “6GR”) to meet a broad range of future use cases, including public safety use cases, and requirements as defined during the RAN requirements study. The study will strive to develop an appropriate set of functionalities, minimizing the adoption of multiple options for the same functionality and focusing on practical user experience.
The RAN plenary also approved several R20 topics. The following topics are supported by the public-safety community and supported by the FirstNet Authority at 3GPP:
- Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) for Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV),
- Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) enhancements for NR air interface,
- Global Navigation Satellite System resilient New Radio-Non-Terrestrial Network (NR-NTN) operation works to allow the NR-NTN system to function efficiently even in scenarios where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is temporarily unavailable or compromised,
- Enhancements to NTN for Internet of Things (IoT),
- Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UTRA) Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) terrestrial network to NR-NTN mobility enhancements, and
- Enhancements of Ambient IoT (A-IoT) in NR. Enhancements of A-IoT in NR aims to support additional topology, device type, scenarios, use cases, and sensor applications.
We provide details on the progress status of features important to public safety for R19 and prior releases below.
The RAN1 working group is responsible for the specification of the physical layer of the radio interfaces. The working group reported the completion of all the R19 study and work items for high-priority features relevant to public safety. These items included work on AI/ML for NR Air Interface, study of channel modeling for ISAC for NR, and solutions for A-IoT in NR. The Ambient IoT feature allows wireless sensors to derive energy from solar and/or wind power-- eliminating the need for frequent changes of batteries—while the ISAC lets the network collect data on the range, velocity, position, size, and the materials in objects operating within coverage footprints to meet the situational-awareness needs of public safety.
The RAN2 working group is responsible for defining radio-interface architecture and protocols. The working group has reported solid progress (90% completed) for R19 work on the FirstNet Authority-championed feature NR sidelink multi-hop U2N relay and is on track to be completed by December 2025. RAN2 also reported solid progress on other high-priority R19 public-safety features, such as NTN for NR (90% completed), IoT NTN (85% completed), and inter Radio Access Technology-mode mobility for supporting mobility between LTE TN to NR-NTN (99% completed). NTN for NR enhancements expand coverage beyond terrestrial mobile networks (e.g., to rural and remote unserved and underserved areas). IoT NTN enhancements are important to provide connectivity beyond the coverage areas of terrestrial networks for IoT sensors and devices, which can be integrated with—and relied upon—by the public-safety systems.
The RAN3 working group is responsible for the overall Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)/ Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)/Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) architecture and the specification of protocols for the related network interfaces.
The working group has reported good progress on the R19 high-priority features relevant to public safety, such as enhancements for AI/ML for NG-RAN (80% completed), and additional topological enhancements for NR (85% completed). AI/ML for NG-RAN is important for AI/ML-based Network Slicing and AI/ML-based Coverage and Capacity Optimization. Work on additional topological enhancements for NR provide enhancements to wireless-access backhaul and 5G femto, including backhauling solutions for local gNodeB deployed in public safety or disaster-recovery scenarios.
The RAN4 working group is responsible for development of radio-frequency aspects of 3GPP-standard communications, including performing simulations and deriving the minimum requirements for transmission and reception parameters for UE devices.
RAN4 also reported good progress (65% completed) for core part work on Introduction of Ku Bands (commonly used for satellite communication and currently being leveraged by 3GPP for satellite-based 5G services) for NR-NTN. This work also defines the requirements for the support of different Mobile Very-Small-Aperture Terminal (MVSAT) types operating with non-geostationary orbit constellation in above 10 GHz bands allocated to satellite services.
MVSAT can be mounted on moving platforms—for example, automotive, aircraft, train, and ship transport—for use by first responders to support public-safety use cases via devices operating in Ku bands that connect to Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit satellites. MVSAT technology is uniquely positioned to meet evolving ubiquitous-connectivity demands.
The RAN5 working group—responsible for the development of UE conformance test specifications—typically works one to two releases behind the other working groups.
This working group started work on UE Conformance-Protocol enhancements for Mission Critical Services (MCS), including Mission Critical (MC) Push-to-Talk, MC Video, and MC Data for Rel-17 over LTE and 5G, while reporting good progress to date (47% completed). Other significant public-safety-related UE conformance-test specifications development work on R17 NR sidelink single-hop UE-to-Network relay (90% completed), UE Conformance Solutions for R17 NR NTN (93% completed), UE Conformance Solutions for R18 NR NTN (15% completed), and R18 UE Conformance for IoT NTN (80% completed).
The Service and System Aspects (SA) TSG Plenary
The TSG SA is responsible for the overall architecture and service capabilities of 3GPP-based systems. The SA Plenary meeting included more than 275 attendees.
The 3GPP SA Plenary finalized the R20 5G-A scope and continued discussing the scope of 6G. R20 5G-A included several public-safety high-priority features, such as integration of satellite components in the 5G architecture, AI/ML enhancements, integrated sensing, Ambient IoT, and extended reality and media services (XRM). Further discussions will take place in the upcoming SA Plenary meeting for R20 small Technical Enhancements and Improvements (TEI) scope.
It was also agreed that Proximity Services Enhancements—led by the FirstNet Authority—to support multicast for UE-UE multi-hop will be part of the final scope of TEIs. The SA Plenary also reported steady progress in R19 architecture work.
The SA1 working group is responsible for the services and system requirements, while typically working one release ahead of the other 3GPP working groups. SA1 has focused on R20 for the last three quarters, splitting into two focus areas. The first focus area is 5G-advanced enhancements, and the second is 6G use cases and requirements.
SA1 reported all the 5G-A R20 features complete, except for the phase 6 work item on future railways mobile-communication system, which is only 10% finished. Many of the 5G-A features are continued as enhancements to existing features, such as satellite access, network sharing, and energy efficiency.
The 6G study has started, and some basic use-case scenarios have been accepted. The group reported the 6G study as 66% completed. The study is very detailed and currently has more than 100 unique use cases defined. There are still ongoing discussions about interworking with 5G and non-3GPP systems, with one open area of discussion focused on the need to support interworking with 4G. The FirstNet Authority successfully pushed to include existing MCS into the 6G study to ensure continual support for public-safety features.
The SA2 working group—responsible for the 5G System and Evolved Packet System Architectures—reported at least 99% completion of all the studies and technical specifications for R19, which includes several high-priority features for public safety. One exception was Ambient power-enabled Internet of Things, which was 90% finished.
These enhancements are designed to increase communications coverage and throughput in weak and off-network areas. Public-safety R19 high-priority features include ProSe enhancements. There has been a lot of interest in ProSe by public safety, as well as support for multi-hop UE-to-Network relay and multi-hop UE-to-UE relay, enhancements to the vehicle-mounted relay that include backhaul support over NTN, Femtocell enhancements, Ambient-IoT, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Additionally, a phase 3 enhancement to UAV was accepted that promises to improve the detection, avoidance, and communications capabilities of UAV systems.
The SA3 working group is responsible for 5G Security Aspects. This working group completed work to inventory all security protocols relevant for a future quantum-safe cryptography transition. A follow-on work item to study transitioning to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) in 3GPP has been approved.
This work is the next step in PQC transition and will ensure 3GPP systems can leverage the latest quantum safe cryptographic algorithms when needed. Also, a new work item was approved on Mission Critical security for R20 to align security protections with mission-critical architecture changes.
The SA6 working group develops the architectures for most MC features. The working group is now focused on defining R20 features and studies. For R20 there are several Study Items and WIDs of public safety interest.
These include discreet listening and monitoring of MCS, logging and recording of MCS, continued enhancements to MCS, and support for MCS over multi-hop relay (both UE-to-UE and UE-to-Network).
Discreet listening and monitoring will allow an authorized person to remotely enable the ability to listen to an ongoing situation without public-safety personnel doing anything. This is important for hostage situations, or when public-safety personnel cannot be contacted. The logging and recording feature will let MC service be recorded for future use. The enhanced MCS work focused on continued improvements and corrections to the existing MCS capabilities. The MCS over multi-hop is the same as the R19 single-hop service, but it allows for as many as two additional relays.
The Core Network and Terminals (CT) TSG Plenary
The TSG CT Plenary group covers the protocol details that follow and support the requirements and architectural work defined by the TSG SA groups. The CT Plenary meeting included more than 200 attendees.
The CT group reported continued progress on R19 features. The work in the CT working groups is based on completed SA2 and SA6 architecture work. The FirstNet Authority is primarily interested in the items being developed by the CT1 working group, including the protocol work to support MCS (40% complete), enhanced location for MCS (80% complete), and 5G ProSe phase 3 (85% complete).
Further information on the 3GPP’s work and organization can be found at: www.3gpp.org.
Mark Lipford is the FirstNet Authority’s acting senior director of standards. Contributors to this article include FirstNet Authority Senior Standards Engineers Ihab Guirguis and Satish Jha, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Jeff Cichonski.
