One of ETSI’s most important activities is working on an alternative protocol to TCP/IP, which is not fit for purpose for 5G networks, at least in scenarios like slicing, which require guaranteed reliability and responsiveness. The Next Generation Protocols group (ISG NGP) has released its first full specification for the user plane, GS NGP 013, which promises to optimize performance, efficiency and scalability and make 5G more capable of supporting some of the key use cases envisaged for it – ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) applications and network slicing. Unless 5G can enable such services in an optimal way, it will lose its main differentiator, and commercial justification, compared with 4G. Yet the NPG group believes this will not be possible…