Re: [6gip] 6G in 3GPP?

[Alexandre Petrescu <[e-mail]>]

Le 14/01/2021 à 20:55, Rex Buddenberg a écrit :
> On Thu, 2021-01-14 at 20:42 +0100, Alexandre Petrescu wrote:
>> The reason I might have mistaken "beyond-5G" for "6G" is that I 
>> worked on a "Beyond 3G" once that never materialized.  Then I
>> surveilled 4G and I _think_ I didnt see a "Beyond 4G"
> 
> False equivalence.  Compounded by using  marketing terms which have 
> sloppy definitions.
> 
> All cellphone technologies through '3G' used circuit-switch
> topology. The generational differences are all related to
> transmission, not switching. LTE is a packet switch technology. This
> is a one-time shift. By contrast, 4G, 5G and 6G, whatever the latter
> two turn out to be, are safely assumed to be packet switch
> technologies. Or said another way, routable network segments.

But packet-switched technology on a point-to-point link is almost the
same as a circuity-switched technology: there is no need of src and dst
addresses; there are ptp tunnels in the core.  This led to many quirks
in the use of IPv6-related protocols on 3G, 4G, LTE, and I suspect on 5G
as well.

Where 4G, 5G etc be true packet switched technologies they would be more
allowing smartphones to talk directly to each other without going
through a base station, and would not use tunnels in the core network.

The tunnels and the ptp links to the UE are the new circuits.

Alex

>