5G-Advanced Towards 6G: Past, Present, and Future

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of 5G-Advanced, highlighting its technological advancements, standardization efforts, and its role as a stepping stone towards 6G, covering past, present, and future perspectives.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of 3GPP 5G-Advanced features, evolution directions, and future research opportunities in mobile communications.

Findings

5G-Advanced expands capabilities and use cases.

It serves as a bridge towards 6G development.

Key technologies and standardization efforts are summarized.

Abstract

Since the start of 5G work in 3GPP in early 2016, tremendous progress has been made in both standardization and commercial deployments. 3GPP is now entering the second phase of 5G standardization, known as 5G-Advanced, built on the 5G baseline in 3GPP Releases 15, 16, and 17. 3GPP Release 18, the start of 5G-Advanced, includes a diverse set of features that cover both device and network evolutions, providing balanced mobile broadband evolution and further vertical domain expansion and accommodating both immediate and long-term commercial needs. 5G-Advanced will significantly expand 5G capabilities, address many new use cases, transform connectivity experiences, and serve as an essential step in developing mobile communications towards 6G. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the 3GPP 5G-Advanced development, introducing the prominent state-of-the-art technologies investigated in 3GPP and identifying key evolution directions for future research and standardization.