By Erik Guttman / SRUK

SRUK was the first European R&D centre outside of Korea, created back in 1996. One its main goals was to help understand, then contribute to the expanding domain of mobile communications. The world was being transformed by the global roll out of GSM technology, created within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Samsung already produced phones using this technology. Samsung leaders realized the importance of adding features to the standard and correcting its faults, so this activity became an important part of the product development lifecycle. During this time TV broadcast technology was making the move from analogue to digital, and again ETSI played an important role in the transition, with SRUK engineers driving technology development and standardization helping Samsung become a global leader.

In 1997, it became apparent that a global technology should have a global standards creation process. Though the ITU had formed this function since the days of Marconi, as a government based organization, it was not suitable for an industry-based standards making organization. National and European standards organizations had taken on transition from analog to digital cellular telephony. SRUK and Samsung Korea helped lead the industry wide discussions to bring the major regional based standards development organisations together (ETSI, TTA, ARIB, ATIS) to create the third generation partnership project (3GPP). With major contributions from the now global standards team (SRUK, STE (Korea), and SRA), the third generation partnership project – 3GPP – was born in 1999.

The 3G standard picked up where GSM left off, during the period that the so called ‘2.5G’ standards were being developed. The SRUK standards team was active in committees preparing for the next generation, as well as the negotiations to produce the new organizational structure of 3GPP. As these steering Technical Standards Groups formed, Samsung standards leaders from Korea and SRUK played a leading role in both the technical and organizational work.

As the years progressed towards the completion of Release 99 (when 3G was introduced,) and beyond, Samsung increased its attendance in 3GPP standards, eventually involved across the entire organisation. SRUK’s role also expanded, with particular expertise in RAN2, CT1 and SA2 working groups. A highlight of this period was a modem development effort in SRUK, with standards and chipset engineers working closely together on the emerging 3G standards. Another highlight was the close collaboration between Samsung standards development teams, including SRUK, to develop MBMS.

As 4G efforts began, and continued to 5G, SRUK increasingly played leading roles – in RAN2 on the development of LTE and in SA2 on the Enhanced Packet System (EPS). Besides leading the development of key features in the role of ‘rapporteur,’ SRUK experts were elected to chairmanship positions in diverse committees in 3GPP – GJ Van Lieshout elected as chair of RAN2 in 2007, Erik Guttman chair of SA2 in 2011, then chair of most prestigious group SA in 2015.

3GPP is not alone in telecommunications standardization. There are other organizations that have been and remain essential to advances in this field, principally ETSI. There are diverse standards activities led by ETSI that have global implications, beyond Europe. Again SRUK has had a strong leadership position, helping drive strategy at the ETSI board, Howard Benn has been a board member since 2008. Samsung has long been involved in digital broadcast. The BROADCAST technical committee in ETSI works jointly with the DVB Forum, where John Adam is a long term board member, to produce radio and other standards that are of essential importance for broadcast television and radio. SRUK took part and continues to participate in the development and standardization of numerous broadcast standards.

In other areas, ETSI standards are vital for European markets, which are of substantial importance to Samsung. Both as to support corporate affairs and for specific strategic reasons, SRUK is an active member of the Radio Spectrum Matters (ERM) committee. Similarly, the SRUK team attends the TC Cyber technical committee, whose focus is on the security of information and communication technology systems.

Beyond technical committees, ETSI also is the home to diverse Industry Specification Groups (ISGs). These committees are not fully integrated into the processes and formal accountability of technical committees, allowing them freedom to explore emerging fields of great promise. SRUK engages in these efforts, both as a participant and in leadership positions. In ETSI ISG MEC, which develops specifications for Multi-access Edge Computing, Walter Featherstone is the chairman of the DECODE group, which facilitates adoption of MEC through development of interfaces. In ETSI ISG ENI, Yue Wang is the secretary, coordinating investigation of the role of artificial intelligence in telecommunications networks.

Currently, the telecommunications industry develops 5G standards, completing work on the initial two phases of the 5G standards developed by 3GPP. Our standards experts continue to play a leadership role with Ricky Kaura voted as CT1 VC in 2017, and Andy Bennett SA2 VC in 2019. SRUK researchers who were active in European research projects have joined the standards team to realize the valuable output of that activity in radio and network standards. As Samsung has expanded its participation in 3GPP, SRUK has both increased its participation in strategic working groups – including SA1, SA2 and SA6, and related industry initiatives in standards and business-sector specific consortia. As 5G opens new opportunities for business and efficiencies for Samsung and the industry, SRUK plays a significant role in a wide range of committees in both ETSI and 3GPP.