scope:

The present document specifies the stage 3 of the control plane of the GPRS Tunnelling Protocol, Version 2 (GTPv2-C).

GTPv2-C shall be used over:

- the S2a, S2b, S3, S4, S5, S8, S10, S11, S16, Sm and Sn signalling interfaces in EPC, specified in 3GPP TS 23.401 [3] and 3GPP TS 23.402 [45].

- the N26 signalling interface between EPC and 5GC, specified in 3GPP TS 23.501 [82] and 3GPP TS 23.502 [83].

GTPv2-C based protocols shall also be used over the Sv (see 3GPP TS 29.280 [15]) and S101/S121 (see 3GPP TS 29.276 [14]) interfaces.

In this document, unless otherwise specified, the S2a, S2b, S5 and S8 interfaces refer to the GTP-based S2a, S2b, S5 and S8 interfaces respectively.

The present document specifies functions, procedures and information which apply to GERAN Iu mode. However, functionality related to GERAN Iu mode is neither maintained nor enhanced.

[3] 3GPP TS 23.401: "General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) access".

[45] 3GPP TS 23.402: "Architecture enhancements for non-3GPP accesses.

[82] 3GPP TS 23.501:"System Architecture for the 5G System; Stage 2".

[83] 3GPP TS 23.502:"Procedures for the 5G System; Stage 2".

[15] 3GPP TS 29.280: "Evolved Packet System (EPS); 3GPP Sv interface (MME to MSC, and SGSN to MSC) for SRVCC".

[14] 3GPP TS 29.276: "3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS); Optimized handover procedures and protocols between E-UTRAN Access and cdma2000 HRPD Access; Stage 3".