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Glossary

CID (Cell-ID (positioning method)) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
CID
Stands for
Cell-ID (positioning method)
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 36.305, TS 38.305

In plain words

CID means Cell-ID, a positioning method. In TS 38.305, the CID positioning method estimates UE position using "the knowledge of the geographical coordinates of its serving ng-eNB or gNB". TS 36.305 also describes a CID-based method, estimating UE position using the serving eNodeB's geographical coordinates.

Source: 3GPP TS 38.305 V19.3.0, clause 8.3.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.305/38305-j30.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 38.305 V19.3.0, clause 8.3.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.305/38305-j30.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 36.305 V19.0.0, clause 8.3.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.305/36305-j00.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.