Samsung Research’s Younsun Kim and Andrew Bennett were appointed as chairs

Samsung Electronics has announced that two researchers were elected chairs of two Working Groups in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the world’s largest telecommunications standard development organization.

Established in 1998, 3GPP is dedicated to developing the global unified standard for mobile communications. 3GPP is comprised of companies and organizations around the world — including Samsung, Qualcomm, Apple, Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and more.

Younsun Kim and Andrew Bennett from Samsung Research, Samsung’s advanced R&D hub, have been appointed as the Chairs of 3GPP’s Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) and Service and System Aspects Working Group 2 (SA WG2), respectively.

Younsun Kim was first appointed as the Chair of RAN WG1 in May 2021, and has been entrusted with the role again after completing his two-year term. Andrew Bennett has been elected the Chair of SA WG2 after he served as the group’s vice-chair during four years.

As RAN WG1 and SA WG2 are fundamental to 3GPP, the two chairs are expected to play an important role in developing standards for 5G-Advanced, the next version of 5G and preparation of the next generation of mobile communications (i.e., 6G). RAN WG1 is responsible for the development of technical specifications for the physical layer of radio access network. SA WG2 is responsible for 5G system architecture standards.

“The two researchers being appointed as the chairs of key 3GPP Working Groups is a reflection of Samsung’s discernible global leadership in developing mobile communications standards,” said Paul (Kyungwhoon) Cheun, CTO, Samsung Electronics. “Going forward, Samsung will proactively contribute to the standard development for 5G-Advanced, the next evolution of 5G technology and 6G.”

“3GPP is developing the standard for 5G-Advanced in order to further improve 5G technology. We’ll make an effort to make sure that the 5G-Advanced standard incorporates innovations that can have crucial impacts on consumers’ experiences,” Kim said.

“We’ll work together with 3GPP member companies for, not just the 5G-Advanced standard that is currently being developed, but also the preparation of 6G. We expect 6G discussion would start around the mid-2020s to provide 6G networks and devices fulfilling the demands of our society around 2030,” said Bennett.