ASN.1 in 5G & LTE

ASN.1 is a mature core technology that is widely used for robust communication in Financial, Aviation, Security, Transportation, and Telecommunication infrastructures. ASN.1's reliability and performance have been put to test for more than a quarter century and ASN.1 has consistently proven its ability to satisfy the requirements of even the most demanding communication protocols.

ASN.1 is an essential ingredient for achieving the strict speed requirements defined by ITU-R in the International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) requirements.

Many communication protocols have been traditionally defined in ASN.1 by 3GPP because ASN.1 is a formal notation (that is, a formal way of specifying protocol messages), it is defined as a standardized specification (vendor-independent), it is a proven, robust technology, and it supports backward compatibility across different versions of a protocol. Also, using ASN.1, you can:

• Exchange small-size messages.
• Easily create low-memory footprint codecs that can encode/decode messages at a high speed.
• Port to different platforms.

A decade ago, 4G enabled very fast mobile broadband communication. To be successful, 4G networks required proven technologies, capable of delivering massive amounts of user data and network control information in fractions of a second.

5G, the fifth generation technology of cellular mobile communications, raises the bar even further. It targets a higher data rate, reduced latency, energy efficiency, cost reduction, increased system capacity, and massive device connectivity. Because ASN.1 can meet all these requirements, 3GPP has elected to continue using ASN.1 for 5G.

Consequently, many of the 3GPP 5G and LTE protocols such as RRC, S1AP, X2AP, NGAP, XnAP, E1AP, F1AP, and LPPa are defined using ASN.1.

Go to the OSS 5G & LTE Products area to find out more.