The present document examines use cases and traffic scenarios in residential environments (e.g. homes and small offices) and identifies related new potential functional requirements and potential key performance requirements in the following three areas:

• Enhancements for wireline wireless convergence,
• Enhancements for fixed LAN - 5GLAN integration, and
• Enhancements for indoor small base stations

The following documents contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present document.

• References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same Release as the present document.

Many operators around the world both have mobile network and fixed network operations. Operators provide triple-play, combining mobile communication, fixed telephony and broadband Internet, or even quad-play, adding TV, to customers in the consumer / residential market. In this market, operators can distinguish themselves by providing an optimal integration between the different services. Following the trend of wireline/wireless convergence, operators are integrating their fixed and mobile networks into a single core network with fixed and mobile access networks. Even for single play mobile network operators optimising 5G residential services is relevant. One of the main benefits that 5G brings to consumers is that it will provide higher bitrates. These higher bitrates will enable or improve eMBB services such as mobile TV, AR/VR, or mobile gaming. Remarkably, to a large extend such 'mobile' services are used by users that are not on the move. Generally hourly patterns for mobile data traffic show that the highest mobile data usage is in the evening, when people are enjoying mobile data services whilst at home.

The pattern of cellular data usage implies that residential environments are very important in 5G usage. The residential environment is where a large portion of 5G traffic will be handled. And the residential environment is not the easiest environment to provide network coverage. With video/TV services and AR/VR gaming, residential users demand high bitrates and with a concentration of media traffic can easily require significant capacities. High bitrates and high capacity are best provided with mmwave frequencies. However, at mmwave frequencies it will be difficult to provide outside-to-inside coverage with operator base stations. Also with indoor base stations, it will not be easy to provide sufficient indoor coverage. Scenarios with a PRAS in every room (e.g. integrated in the light fixture in the centre of the ceiling) may be needed to provide really good in-home coverage. This also requires upgrades to fixed access, residential gateways and in-home cabling. At the same time, it is virtually impossible for an operator to install and manage their own radio access infrastructure in a residential environment. Where in a large office, the operator can provide and manage indoor coverage, in a residential environment the installation of radio equipment, cabling will likely be left to the homeowner (Authorised Administrator). Currently fixed broadband services work on a different premise than mobile services. With mobile services, each individual device is known and identifiable in the mobile network. That implies that services can be provided to individual devices. With fixed broadband services, the operator provides Internet access to a residential gateway. Behind that residential gateway is usually a LAN, but individual devices on that LAN are not known or identifiable in the core network. For an integrated fixed broadband / mobile residential 5G offering, it would be beneficial if devices behind an eRG can also be known and identified in the core network. The trend towards Wireline / Wireless Convergence is already recognised in 3GPP. In collaboration with the BroadBand Forum (BBF), architecture solutions have been specified where a single 5G core network is used to also control fixed broadband access. Also, solutions like 5G LAN and UE relaying have been specified with residential use cases (partly) in mind. Nevertheless, there are still areas where improvements for residential use are needed/useful to achieve the vision of a residential 5G without boundaries between fixed broadband and mobile.