There seems to be some confusion in the public
safety community as to exactly where the IWF sits
– can you clarify this?
Generally speaking, interworking functions or gateways
are seen as an implementation matter. However, strictly
speaking from 3GPP’s perspective, our responsibility lies in
the messages supported on the IWF interface, and this has
been fully specifi ed. Th e IWF implementation must ensure
it conforms to the IWF interface as per 3GPP specifi cations.
Th e implementation of IWF is typically a decision of the MC
service provider, who needs to make sure that IWF function is
integrated to both the 3GPP system and the LMR system on
the other side.
Can you comment on the widening of SA6’s brief
to include other mission-critical verticals besides
public safety?
Th e Terms of Reference (ToR) for SA6 were modifi ed during
Release 15. Mission Critical Applications continue to be
a top priority for SA6. However, the charter now includes
extending the application-layer standards to other activities
such as northbound APIs and other vertical applications and
frameworks. For instance, railways is a good example of a
mission-critical vertical beyond public safety, and the V2X
(Vehicle to Everything) APP is an example of a vertical we
have been working on recently to enable integration of V2X
applications to 3GPP systems by creating a V2X application
support layer.
How does SA6’s work fi t into the development
of the Common API Framework (CAPIF); Service
Enabler Architecture Layer (SEAL); and Application
Architecture of Edge Apps (EDGEAPP)? What is
the signifi cance of these developments?
Th ese initiatives are led by SA6 within 3GPP, and can be
categorised into “enabling technologies” for new vertical
applications. Th ese activities are particularly important given
the strong interest in the industry in deploying new verticals
with 5G.
CAPIF provides a unifi ed API framework for thirdparty
applications to discover and invoke 3GPP network
functionality, and similarly provides a way for underlying
Suresh Chitturi CV
Suresh Chitturi, director for standards at the Samsung
Research Institute in Bangalore, was elected as chairman of
the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Service and
System Aspect 6 (SA6) Working Group in March 2018. He
previously served as vice-chairman of SA6 Working Group,
providing a key contribution to the timely completion of
mission-critical standards to meet the needs of the critical
communications industry. He also represents Samsung
on the governing council of TSDSI – the Indian telecom
standards development organisation (SDO) – and has
previously held leadership positions at several other SDOs,
such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Open Mobile
Alliance (OMA), Java Community Process (JCP) and the
GSM Association (GSMA).
3GPP functions to register and publish their APIs such
that they are discoverable by the third-party APIs. Having a
unifi ed framework will enable operators to expose network
functionality to developers in a consistent manner.
SEAL provides a common application support layer for
verticals. More specifi cally, it focuses on defi ning certain
essential capabilities such as management of groups, location,
confi guration, key/ID management and resource management,
which can be leveraged by new verticals. Having such a
common layer will signifi cantly reduce the time to market for
new vertical applications, and we have already experienced this
with V2XAPP, and are seeing interest in reusing SEAL for other
verticals such as Factories of the Future (FFAPP), Unmanned
Aerial System (UASAPP), and 5GMARCH (5GMSG –
Message Service for Massive IoT over 5G System), which are
being studied in SA6.
EDGEAPP provides an application layer framework or
enabling layer for hosting of Edge applications both at the
device and the network edge, and interactions between them.
Th e activity focuses on aspects such as service provisioning,
discovery, registration, and service continuity across multiple
edge networks.
What will be the main areas of focus for SA6 in the
next few meetings?
With Release 16 behind us, our top focus will be to progress
the Release 17 stage-2 work towards completion in Q3/2020.
From mission-critical applications, emphasis will be on the
completion of normative work on Railways 3.0, MCIOPS,
and MCData 4.0, as well as the recently agreed MCPTT 5.0
work item, which will also address the conclusions from the
enhMCLoc study.
We can expect to conclude on the MCOver5GS study as
well. Outside MC, we are actively engaged and on track to
complete EDGEAPP 1.0, which is a top priority for 3GPP in
Release 17 and has been receiving signifi cant interest from the
industry. We will also be making progress on other studies such
as FFAPP, UASAPP, 5GMARCH and V2XAPP 2.0.
In a nutshell, there is a lot of work riding on Release 17,
and we can expect another solid outcome from SA6! Finally, I
would like to thank all the delegates and their companies for
their commitment and high-quality contributions.
March 2020 @CritCommsToday 17