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Glossary

RAI (Routing Area Identity) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
RAI
Stands for
Routing Area Identity
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 23.003, TS 23.060, TS 29.274

In plain words

3GPP TR 21.905 expands RAI as Routing Area Identity, and TS 23.060 describes an operator-defined RAI as identifying one or several cells. TS 23.060 says the identity is "defined by an operator, identifies one or several cells.". TS 23.003 clause 19.4.2.5 is titled Routing Area Identity (RAI) - EPC, and TS 29.274 clause 8.21.3 shows the coding of RAI.

Source: 3GPP TS 23.060 V19.0.0, clause 14.7. © 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

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 23.060 V19.0.0, clause 14.7. © 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
  3. 3GPP TS 23.003 V20.1.0, clause 19.4.2.5. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.003/23003-k10.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 29.274 V20.0.0, clause 8.21.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.274/29274-k00.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.