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Glossary

ARFCN (Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
ARFCN
Stands for
Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 38.101-1, TS 38.104

In plain words

ARFCN stands for Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number in the vocabulary entry of 3GPP TR 21.905. TS 38.104 says NR-ARFCN designates RF reference frequencies: "in the range [0…3279165] on the global frequency raster". TS 38.101-1 also uses NR-ARFCN to designate RF reference frequencies, in the range (0…2016666) on the global frequency raster.

Source: 3GPP TS 38.104 V20.1.0, clause 5.4.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.104/38104-k10.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 38.104 V20.1.0, clause 5.4.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.104/38104-k10.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 38.101-1 V20.1.0, clause 5.4.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.101-1/38101-1-k10.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.