5G-MAG Showcases 3GPP Release 18 MBS at ESA's NTN Forum

5G-MAG took center stage at the European Space Agency's (ESA) NTN Forum Colloquium & General Assembly, bringing an end-to-end demonstration of its open-source 3GPP Release 18 5G Multicast Broadcast Services (MBS) reference tools.

Hosted at ESA/ESTEC, the event gathered global leaders and technical experts from across the satellite and terrestrial telecommunications industries to explore the integration and deployment of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN).

5G-MAG's on-site presence highlighted the practical implementation of both MBS Broadcast and MBS Multicast standards. The showcased open-source toolkit spans the entire architecture — covering the MBS System (3GPP TS 23.247) across the 5G Core, gNodeB, and User Equipment (UE), alongside MBS User Services (3GPP TS 26.502 / TS 26.517) such as the MBS Application Provider, MBSTF, MBSF, MBS Client, and MBS-Aware Applications.

Developed through the collaborative efforts of the 5G-MAG Media Connectivity Software Accelerator programme — with key contributions from organizations including the BBC and the iTEAM Research Institute (iTEAM-UPV) — the reference tools are designed to fast-track specification validation, interoperability, and end-to-end testing for media delivery over 5G networks.

Developers and stakeholders looking to explore the code, architecture, and upcoming experimentation platforms can find out more via the 5G-MAG Developer Portal.