# Summary of S4-260179: Considerations for SA4 Terms of Reference

## 1. Introduction and Background

This contribution provides considerations for updating the SA4 Terms of Reference (ToR), following discussions at SA4#134 in Dallas where no agreement was reached on S4-252136. The document presents Huawei/HiSilicon's views on the ToR update with a revised version of the previous contribution.

## 2. AI/ML Related Traffic Characteristics

### Main Position
The document argues that **traffic characteristics input is the most urgent topic** as it affects progress in other working groups.

### Key Technical Points
- Related work on general AI traffic characteristics has already been addressed in SA1 and SA2 in Release 18 (e.g., TS 23.501 includes 5QI 88 for AI/ML traffic)
- **SA4 should focus specifically on media service-related AI traffic characteristics** to complement SA1/SA2 work
- Real-time media-related AI traffic is of particular interest to 3GPP working groups
- This includes representations and formats for AI-related media, such as **multi-modal AI**

### Supporting Contribution
The source references companion contribution S4-260096 on AI-related formats used in state-of-the-art AI/ML systems with media components, indicating that TR 26.927 and the 6G study need updates.

## 3. AI/ML Quality Evaluation

### Main Position
The document argues **against including general AI/ML quality evaluation** in SA4 ToR.

### Rationale
- Quality evaluation of AI is highly task-dependent
- Many AI services are not under SA4 control
- Different tasks have different evaluation criteria
- Developing generic AI quality evaluation mechanisms is not trivial
- Could introduce numerous quality evaluation problems SA4 cannot address

### Recommended Scope
SA4 should only address quality evaluation when:
- Very constrained to specific media-related use cases
- Valuable in the SA4 context (e.g., AI codec or other specific media-related AI use cases)

## 4. General Considerations

### Scope Boundaries
- **Most AI traffic (text/application data) is outside SA4 scope**: MCP/A2A and agent protocols use text training data and application access, which have never been in SA4's domain
- Timed text differs from general unstructured web text and was traditionally in multimedia scope due to synchronization requirements

### Media-Related AI Traffic
- For AI-related media traffic, multimodal AI requires attention
- Different representations are popular compared to previous considerations
- State-of-the-art updates needed in TR 26.927 or 6G study

### AI Codec vs. AI Model Distinction
- **AI codec/representation format evaluation differs from evaluating the AI model itself**
- Different codecs/formats can compress/represent neural networks and AI models
- Codec development work is appropriate for SA4
- Work beyond codecs should be limited to well-defined media-related use cases

### 6G Considerations
- **6G AI/ML use cases should be considered for AI traffic characteristics**
- **Embodied AI** identified as having the most stringent real-time requirements relevant to the network
- Current mobile networks meet most requirements of today's AI services (chatbots), making them less useful as anchors for 6G targeting 2030
- Previous ToR mentioned 5G; may be necessary to refer to 6G-specific aspects and use cases

### General AI Usage in 3GPP
- General usage of AI in 3GPP (e.g., for network operation) should not be linked to codec working group SA4
- Such applications are outside SA4's expertise

## 5. Proposal

The document proposes incorporating these suggestions into any revision of the SA4 Terms of Reference, with suggested updates provided in an attachment to the paper.