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Glossary

HO (Handover) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
HO
Stands for
Handover
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 23.060, TS 36.300, TS 36.523-1

In plain words

In 3GPP terminology, HO means handover. TS 36.300 describes "The intra E-UTRAN HO of a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state" as UE-assisted network-controlled, with HO preparation signalling in E-UTRAN. TS 36.523-1 repeats this description, while for PS handover TS 23.060 describes source and target cells within the same or different BSSs or SGSNs, or different radio access types.

Source: 3GPP TS 36.300 V17.13.0, clause 10.1.2.1.0. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-hd0.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 36.300 V17.13.0, clause 10.1.2.1.0. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-hd0.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 36.523-1 V19.4.0, clause 8.2.4.31.4.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.523-1/36523-1-j40.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 23.060 V19.0.0, clause 6.9.4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.060/23060-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.