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Glossary

AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
AMF
Stands for
Access and Mobility Management Function
Defined in
3GPP TS 23.501 V20.3.0, clause 6.2.1
TR 21.905 also lists
Authentication Management Field
Used in
TS 23.503, TS 29.507, TS 38.300

In plain words

In TS 23.501, the AMF applies NAS ciphering and integrity protection, and its listed responsibilities include "Termination of RAN CP interface (N2).". TS 23.503, TS 29.507 and TS 38.300 also use AMF, respectively in an AMF clause, a service-consumer description and functional-split text.

Source: 3GPP TS 23.501 V20.3.0, clause 6.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.501/23501-k30.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TS 23.501 V20.3.0, clause 6.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.501/23501-k30.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 23.503 V20.3.0, clause 6.2.8. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.503/23503-k30.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 29.507 V18.8.0, clause 4.1.3.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.507/29507-i80.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 38.300 V19.4.0, clause 4.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-j40.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.