3GPP 5G NR – What’s the ‘g’ in gNB all about?

3GPP is putting a lot of meat on the bones these days to the 5G New Radio (NR) study item. In the recent edition of TS 38.801 (Study on New Radio Access Technology) I read that the base station in 5G New Radio (NR) will be referred to as gNB. Unfortunately it is not mentioned what the ‘g’ actually stands for!?

I searched the net up and down but the only other thing I could come across was S3-161218 which states that ‘NG base stations […] are called gNB according to an agreement in RAN3#92.’

O.k., perhaps it doesn’t really matter as nobody ever explained how a base station got called NodeB (NB) in 3G. But at least everybody understood the ‘e’ (evolved) attached to NodeB when LTE came around.

So if you have an idea what the ‘g’ in gNB is all about please consider leaving a comment. A reference to a document would be even greater so we can conserve it for eternity. Just like the 4 dots in the GSM logo that nobody really knew about on the net until I asked.