4 General

38.3073GPPNRRelease 17Requirements on User Equipments (UEs) supporting a release-independent frequency bandTS

TSG-RAN has agreed for certain features (see the following clauses) to introduce them in a "release independent way".

This means for each feature:

– it is "introduced" in a release N, i.e. TS 38.101 [2-5] and TS 38.133 [6] of release N define certain UE requirements for this feature; the feature is indicated in the tables of the following clauses;

– it is "release independent" starting from a release M (M<N); M for the given feature is provided in the tables of the following clauses;

– UEs supporting this feature have to fulfil additional requirements in release M or higher which are specified in one or more Annexes of TS 38.307 of release N; the applicable Annexes for a given feature are provided in the tables of the following clauses.

The applicable UE Categories are specified in TS 38.306 [7] according to the release to which the UE conforms.

In the table of release independent features in subsequent clauses, "FDD, TDD" refers to CA or EN-DC configuration composed by only FDD bands or only TDD bands, respectively. "FDD and TDD" refers to CA or EN-DC configuration including both FDD and TDD bands. "SDL and FDD, SDL and TDD" refers to CA configuration including both SDL and FDD bands or both SDL and TDD bands, respectively. "TDD and SUL" refers to SUL configuration including both TDD and SUL bands. "FDD and TDD and SUL" refers to EN-DC configuration including both FDD, TDD and SUL bands. Unless stated otherwise, the release independent for the band combinations are from Rel-15. Configurations with BCSs other than BCS5 are release independent from Rel-15, where the BCSs for configurations are defined in TS 38.101-1 [2] and/or TS 38.101-3 [4]. Configurations with BCS5 are release independent from Rel-17, and BCS5 with signalling is allowed for early implementation from Rel-15. Note that BCS4/BCS5 is not applicable to intra-band EN-DC configurations.

When a new feature is introduced only the latest release of release independent spec needs to be updated. The latest release of release independent spec refers to the release which the new feature is introduced in. If an RF feature introduced in the same release as the release which the feature is independent from, (i.e. M=N), the common UE RF requirements table in annex B.4 is specified from release N+1, otherwise the common UE RF requirements table is specified from release N.