CELL_PCH

The CELL_PCH state is characterized by:

Neither an uplink nor a downlink dedicated physical channel is allocated to the
UE
The UE uses DRX for monitoring a PCH via an allocated PICH.
No uplink activity is possible [note: if the UE wants to make an uplink access i
t autonomously shall enter the CELL_FACH state].
The UE is known on cell level according to the cell where the UE last made a cel
l update in CELL_FACH state.
In this state, the UE shall
monitor the paging occasions according to the DRX cycle and receive paging infor
mation on the PCH
acquire system information on the BCH and use the measurement control informatio
n according to that system information when no dedicated measurement control inf
ormation has been assigned to the UE
perform cell reselection and upon selecting a new UTRA cell, enter the CELL_FACH
state and initiate a cell update procedure
upon selecting a new cell belonging to another radio access system than UTRA, en
ter idle mode and make an access to that system according to its specifications
perform measurements according to the measurement control information
when needed according to the measurement control information, enter CELL_FACH st
ate and transmit measurement reports
URA_PCH
The URA_PCH state is characterized by:
Neither an uplink nor a downlink dedicated physical channel is allocated to the
UE
The UE uses DRX for monitoring a PCH via an allocated PICH.
No uplink activity is possible [note: if the UE wants to make an uplink access i
t autonomously enters the CELL_FACH state].
The UE is known on URA level according to the URA assigned to the UE during the
last URA update in CELL_FACH state.
In this state, the UE shall
monitor the paging occasions according to the DRX cycle and receive paging infor
mation on the PCH
acquire system information on the BCH and use the measurement control informatio
n according to that system information when no dedicated measurement control inf
ormation has been assigned to the UE
perform cell reselection and upon selecting a new UTRA cell that does not match
the URA assigned to the UE, enter the CELL_FACH state and initiate a URA update
procedure
upon selecting a new cell belonging to another radio access system than UTRA, en
ter idle mode and make an access to that system according to its specifications
(FFS)
perform measurements according to the measurement control information
when needed according to the measurement control information, enter CELL_FACH st
ate and transmit measurement reports
URA or UTRAN Registration Area is a collection of cells that are used for fast m
oving UE's in Connected mode when they are not transferring any data.
In this case the UE is in CELL_PCH state. Every time a fast moving UE in CELL_PC

H state changes the cell, a CELL UPDATE needs to be performed to let the UTRAN k
now of the new position of the UE. This is done because in the connected mode (C
ELL_PCH), UE is known at cell level rather than UTRAN level as in IDLE state. If
too many CELL UPDATES are performed, it defeats the purpose of UE being in CELL
_PCH. Hence in this case the UE is put in URA_PCH state. Now the UE will perform
CELL UPDATE only when the URA is changed for a UE. The drawback is that when UE
needs to be paged the paging area is now extended to many cells belonging to th
e URA.
URA_PCH is similar to CELL_PCH except the RNC tracks the location of the UE on a
per URA basis rather than on a per cell basis.
Also Note that the CELL_PCH state is actually a subset of the URA_PCH state. It
is possible to define overlapping URAs to be used in the URA_PCH state.
The URAs can be overlapping or even hierarchical. The same cell may belong to se
veral different URAs, and the UEs in that cell may have been registered to diffe
rent URAs. SIB 2 contains a list of URA identities indicating which URAs this ce
ll belongs to. This arrangement is done to further reduce the amount of location
update signaling because now the UEs moving back and forth in the boundary area
of two URAs do not have to update their URA location information if the boundar
y cells do belong to both URAs.

In Cell-PCH , the UE s current cell is known to the RNC. If the RNC wants to excha
nge data with the UE, it only needs to page the UE there. If the UE changes the
cell, it must perform a cell update. Also periodical cell updates can be request
ed by UTRAN. To perform updates, the UE must change to the CELL_FACH sub-state.
UE in CELL_PCH have a lower resource requirement than UE in CELL_FACH, but canno
t transfer uplink data. Only downlink CBS and MBMS services are possible. The RN
C tracks the location of the UE on a per cell basis and paging type 1 messages c
an be forwarded to individual cells using a DRX cycle.
Now, If the UE is in the CELL_PCH and moving fast, a lot of cell updates have to
be performed. URAs are a combination of one or several cells under one C-RNC. U
RAs may overlap, i.e. a cell may belong to several URAs. If UTRAN wants to trans
mit something to the UE, it must page the UE within the URA. The UE is responsib
le for URA updates when it changes the URA
and periodic URA updates
when require
d by UTRAN.
So in this way UTRAN doesn't need to keep cell level information on an UE.
Difference is the area type... in CELL_PCH the paging is SA based (Or cell)... i
n URA_PCH the paging is done in URA based area. That is the main difference.....
. CELL_PCH can save lot more capacity in a UE not moving or changing the paging
area, and the URA_PCH can save lot of signaling due to CELL_UPDATEs messages....
. and more be more efficient than LA (LOCATION AREA)......