3GPP
3rd Generation Partnership Project
3GPP (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project) is a collaboration agreement between telecommunications standards development organizations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC) established in 1998 to produce globally-applicable technical specifications and technical reports for a 3rd generation mobile system. 3GPP subsequently expanded its scope to cover GSM, LTE, 5G NR, and 6G study items. The 3GPP specifications underpin cellular networks worldwide — every GSM, UMTS, LTE, and 5G handset and base station relies on 3GPP specifications for its air interface, core network, and protocol stacks.
Document Types 2
Components 7
Structured elements that make up a 3GPP identifier:
Publisher
3GPP — omitted by default, added when with_publisher=true
3GPPType Prefix
TS for Technical Specification, TR for Technical Report
TSNumber
Dotted core (e.g. 23.207), kept as string to preserve leading zeros
23.207Suffix
Optional letter suffix directly after number: 'U', 'dcs', 'ext'
UParts
1-2 hyphenated parts (e.g. -1, -04-1), strings preserve zero-padding
-04-1Release
Raw release token: 'REL-4', 'Ph1', 'UMTS', 'Release 2000'
REL-4Version
Three-part version string (X.Y.Z)
2.0.0PubID Algebra 4
Relationships between 3GPP identifiers:
| Relation | Description | Syntax | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default Form | No publisher prefix (default) | <TS|TR> <number>[<suffix>][<parts>]:<release>/<version> | TS 23.207:REL-4/2.0.0 |
| With Publisher | Publisher prefix added | 3GPP <TS|TR> <number>[<suffix>][<parts>]:<release>/<version> | 3GPP TS 23.207:REL-4/2.0.0 |
| Multi-part | Multi-part spec with hyphenated parts | <TS|TR> <number>-<part1>[-<part2>]:<release>/<version> | TS 29.198-04-1:REL-5/5.0.0 |
| Legacy Release | Pre-REL-4 release tokens | <TS|TR> <number>:<Ph1|Ph2|UMTS|Release 2000>/<version> | TR 00.01U:UMTS/3.0.0 |