1. Introduction to GCF

GCF stands for Global Certification Forum, which is a voluntary certification organization in Europe. The GCF was established in the context of the abolition of mandatory certification, with the hope that through this certification operators and handset manufacturers will guarantee the interoperability of terminals on a global scale.

2. GCF Organizational Structure

The GCF is composed of the Board, the Steering Group and the Agreement Groups. All GCF certification use cases are defined and maintained by various working groups, including:

• CAG（Combined AG） CAG is responsible for all use cases related to conformance and interoperability for GERAN, UMTS, LTE, 5G and AE.
• FTAG（Field Trial AG） FTAG is responsible for the relevant content and requirements of the field test.
• PAG（Performance AG） PAG is responsible for performance-related test requirements, including antenna performance, audio performance, battery life, and throughput.
• AAG（Accessory AG） AAG is responsible for the requirements for accessories such as chargers.

Among them, the use cases specified in CAG and FTAG are required for GCF certification, and the use cases specified in PAG and AAG can be voluntarily selected by operators and terminal manufacturers. The CAG and FTAG meet four times a year, and all members are required to attend all meetings and contribute to the development of GCF certification.

3. GCF certification requirements and process

GCF certification is required for end products to be sold to GCF operators. GCF certification includes conformance and interoperability testing, field testing, and OTA testing. The terminal manufacturer needs to select a valid GCF version for testing and certification, and finally ensure that all test results required by that version are accurate and meet the requirements of GCF certification. GCF versions are released every three months, i.e. after each CAG meeting, and each version specifies a clear expiration date.

Conformance and interoperability certification requires terminal manufacturers to complete testing in accordance with the requirements of GCF and related standards in accordance with the requirements of the Recognized Testing Organization (RTO) of a qualified testing organization according to the product support characteristics and relevant test standards. The GCF CAG divides use cases into: Class A, B, C, D, P, and N, and the product only needs to complete and pass the Class A and B use cases in its selected valid version.

Field test certification requires the terminal manufacturer to conduct field testing and submit relevant results under the actual operating network authorized by GCF in accordance with the requirements of FTAG. Terminal manufacturers should test under different network environments and configurations as much as possible to ensure the compatibility of the product with different networks. In the end-to-end test, the terminals used together should be terminals of different manufacturers and chip models that have successfully passed GCF certification to ensure the interoperability of the product with other terminals.

OTA certification requires the terminal applying for GCF certification to complete OTA testing and the terminal manufacturer to submit the relevant results.

When all tests have been completed, the end manufacturer needs to create a folder on the GCF website that contains all the test results and submits the corresponding declarations. After the GCF secretary checks that there is no error, the GCF operator will notify the GCF operator that a new terminal product has successfully passed the GCF certification.

4. Standards used for GCF certification

GCF certification references are roughly the same as PTCRB certification. However, the GCF certification OTA standards are different from PTCRB, which are 3GPP TR 25914, TS 34.114 and TS 37.544, and will also refer to the CTIA OTA standard. In addition, it also includes field test standards such as GSMA TS.11.

5. Useful Links

GCF authorized lab query