Radio Resource Control

Radio Resource Control

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Radio Resource Control

Radio Resource Control

Radio Resource Control (RRC)
Complete List of RRC functions
Radio Resource Control States
LTE Mobility States Mapped to 2.5G and 3G
Signalling Radio Bearers
RRC Messages

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Radio Resource Control

Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The RRC layer is the principle control function between the eNB and the UE. It provides
Connection Management services including the setup and release of RRC connections between
the eNB and UE. Setup, management and release of radio connections (SRBs and DRBs)
isalso controlled by the RRC layer. The other major function of the RRC is the broadcast and
management of system information via the BCCH logical channel, in addition control of the
paging process via the PCCH logical channel is also managed by the RRC. RRC has the facility
to transparently transmit NAS messages from the UE to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) these
may be core network mobility management (GMM) or session management messages.
RRC also supports functions related to mobility in the Radio Access Network for users
connected to the E-UTRAN, namely system measurements and measurement processes,
intercell mobility (handovers) and transfer of user context (connection and connection related
information) between eNBs.

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User plane

Control plane

APPs

NAS (ESM, EMM)

TCP/UDP

RRC

IP
PDCP-user

PDCP-control
Radio bearers
RLC
Logical channels
MAC
Transport channels
PHY

Physical channels

Basic Services provided by RRC

RRC Connection Management
Establishment and Release of Radio Resources
Broadcast of System Information
Paging
Transmission of NAS Signalling to EPC
Fig. 1 Overall Protocol Showing RRC
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Radio Resource Control

Complete List of RRC functions

The RRC maintains overall responsibility for the radio connection and supports a large
numberof functions related to this task.

Broadcast of System Information related to the non-access stratum (NAS);

Broadcast of System Information related to the access stratum (AS);
Paging;
Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and
EUTRAN including:
Allocation of temporary identifiers between UE and E-UTRAN;
Configuration of signalling radio bearer(s) for RRC connection:
Low priority SRB and high priority SRB.
Security functions including key management;
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers;
Mobility functions including:
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting for inter-cell and inter-RAT mobility;
Handover;
UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection;
Context transfer at handover.
Notification for MBMS services;
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of Radio Bearers for MBMS services;
QoS management functions;
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;
NAS direct message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.

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RRC Primary Functions and Services

Broadcast of System Information related to the non-access

stratum (NAS);
Broadcast of System Information related to the access
stratum(AS);
Paging;
Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC
connectionbetween the UE and E-UTRAN including:
Allocation of temporary identifiers between UE and E-UTRAN;
Configuration of signalling radio bearer(s) for RRC connection:
Low priority SRB and high priority SRB.
Security functions including key management;
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release
ofpointto point Radio Bearers;
Mobility functions including:
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting
forintercell and inter-RAT mobility;
Handover;
UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection
and reselection;
Context transfer at handover.
Notification for MBMS services;
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release
ofRadioBearers for MBMS services;
QoS management functions;
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;
NAS direct message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.

Fig. 2 RRC Functions and Services

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Radio Resource Control

Radio Resource Control States

The main function of RRC is to mange the connections between the UE and the network and
tohandle the services available across the radio interface depending on the current level of
connectivity. Two levels of RRC connection exist and the capabilities of the system is limited
bythe state of the radio connection. The radio connection may be considered IDLE or
CONNECTED. This is a great simplification over the equivalent UMTS states. The transitions
between the states are driven by activity timers and requirements from the application layers
ofthe protocol stack or paging activity from the network.
RRC_IDLE State
In the IDLE state there is no RRC connection with the network. The identity and location of the
UEdevice is not know to the radio access network when the UE is in the IDLE state. Mobility
iscontrolled by the UE through the process of cell reselections. The cell reselection process
isdependant on measurements taken by the UE and information broadcast from the network.
Whilst the terminal may be considered idle from the perspective of the application layers there
will still be some degree of activity in the lower layer since the UE has to remain aware of the
network and maintain a watch for paging messages. In addition to the monitoring activities,
oneof the overriding responsibilities of the UE in IDLE state is to conserve power, ensuring a
reasonable standby battery performance.
RRC_IDLE state also corresponds to the LTE_IDLE state. In LTE_IDLE state the terminal
isregistered with the EPC i.e. the identity and location of the UE is known by the Mobility
Management Entity (MME) in the core. In this IDLE state there may or may not be active EPS
Bearers present. Where active EPS bearers exist a UE coming out of the IDLE state will not
berequired to re-negotiate the bearer with the core network.
The following is a list of IDLE state functions carried out by the UE.

PLMN selection;
DRX configured by NAS
Monitoring of broadcast system information;
Monitoring of Paging channels;
Cell re-selection mobility;
The UE is identified across the Tracking Area (TA) with a unique id;
UE maintains location resolution at the TA by performing location updates
No RRC context stored in the eNB i.e. no connection exists

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LTE_IDLE
RRC_IDLE

Explicit or automatic de-registration

due to absence of periodic update

End of service
inactivity timer

Service activation
answer to paging

LTE_ACTIVE
RRC_
CONNECTED

Registration

De-registration

LTE_DETACHED

PLMN selection;
DRX configured by NAS
Monitoring of broadcast system
information;
Monitoring of Paging channels;
Cell re-selection mobility;
The UE is identified across the
Tracking Area (TA) with a unique id;
UE maintains location resolution
at the TA by performing location
updates
No RRC context stored in the eNB
i.e. no connection exists
UE has an E-UTRAN-RRC
connection;
UE has a communication context
in the E-UTRAN;
E-UTRAN knows the cell which
the UE belongs to;
Network can transmit and/or
receive data to/from UE;
Network controlled mobility
(handover and inter-RAT cell change
order to GERAN with NACC
(Network Access Cell Change));
Neighbour cell measurements and
reporting;

At PDCP/RLC/MAC level:
UE can transmit and/or receive
data to/from network;
UE monitors control signalling
channel for shared data channel
to see if any transmission over the
shared data channel has been
allocated to the UE;
UE also reports channel quality
information and feedback
information to eNB;
DRX period can be configured
according to UE activity level for UE
power saving and efficient resource
utilization. This is under control of
the eNB.

Fig. 3 RRC States

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Radio Resource Control

RRC_CONNECTED State
In RRC_CONNECTED state a connection exists between the UE and the network via the eNB.
The CONNECTED state also implies that there is communication context stored at the eNB.
The RRC layer in the UE is able to exchange information with the peer RRC layer via the logical
control channels and user plane information may be exchanged via the logical traffic channels.
In RRC_CONNECTED state the location of the mobile is know to the cell level and terminal
mobility is controlled by the network through the handover process.
RRC_CONNECTED corresponds to the LTE_ACTIVE state. LTE_ACTIVE state describes a UE
which has logical and physical connections with the access network and the core network and
is capable of exchanging dedicated signalling and user data. The UE may move between the
IDLE and CONNECTED (ACTIVE) states depending activity level or driven by timers or explicit
messages from the EPC.
The following list describes the properties and activities of a CONNECTED UE

UE has an E-UTRAN-RRC connection;

UE has a communication context in the E-UTRAN;
E-UTRAN knows the cell which the UE belongs to;
Network can transmit and/or receive data to/from UE;
Network controlled mobility (handover and inter-RAT cell change order to GERAN with
NACC (Network Assisted Cell Change));
Neighbour cell measurements and reporting;

At PDCP/RLC/MAC level:

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UE can transmit and/or receive data to/from network;

UE monitors control signalling channel for shared data channel to see if any transmission
over the shared data channel has been allocated to the UE;
UE also reports channel quality information and feedback information to eNB;
DRX period can be configured according to UE activity level for UE power saving and
efficient resource utilization. This is under control of the eNB.

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LTE_IDLE
RRC_IDLE

Explicit or automatic de-registration

due to absence of periodic update

End of service
inactivity timer

Service activation
answer to paging

LTE_ACTIVE
RRC_
CONNECTED

Registration

De-registration

LTE_DETACHED

PLMN selection;
DRX configured by NAS
Monitoring of broadcast system
information;
Monitoring of Paging channels;
Cell re-selection mobility;
The UE is identified across the
Tracking Area (TA) with a unique id;
UE maintains location resolution
at the TA by performing location
updates
No RRC context stored in the eNB
i.e. no connection exists
UE has an E-UTRAN-RRC
connection;
UE has a communication context
in the E-UTRAN;
E-UTRAN knows the cell which
the UE belongs to;
Network can transmit and/or
receive data to/from UE;
Network controlled mobility
(handover and inter-RAT cell change
order to GERAN with NACC
(Network Access Cell Change));
Neighbour cell measurements and
reporting;

At PDCP/RLC/MAC level:
UE can transmit and/or receive
data to/from network;
UE monitors control signalling
channel for shared data channel
to see if any transmission over the
shared data channel has been
allocated to the UE;
UE also reports channel quality
information and feedback
information to eNB;
DRX period can be configured
according to UE activity level for UE
power saving and efficient resource
utilization. This is under control of
the eNB.

Fig. 3 RRC States

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Radio Resource Control

LTE Mobility States Mapped to 2.5G and 3G

LTE is expected to inter-work with existing 2.5G and 3 technologies, namely GPRS and UMTS.
The figure opposite shows the relationship between the various states and the points at which
inter-RAT handovers may take place.
One of the major differences between LTE and the previous mobile technologies is the lack
ofcircuit switched support and its associated mobility states. It can also be seen that the
LTEstate model is significantly less complicated than previous models. This is partly due
tothesimplification in logical and physical channels mapping.

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CELL_DCH

Handover

E-UTRA
RRC_Connected

GSM_
Connected

Handover

GPRS Packet
transfer mode

UTRA_Idle

Reselection

Reselection

E-UTRA
RRC_Idle

CCO
with NACC

CCO,
reselection

Reselection

Connection
establishment/release

Connection
establishment/
release

CELL_PCH
URA_PCH

Connection
establishment/release

CELL_FACH

GSM_Idle/GPRS
Packet_Idle

CCO, reselection

Fig. 4 LTE, 2.5G and 3G Mobility Modes

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Radio Resource Control

Signalling Radio Bearers

The Signalling Radio Bearers (SRB) are a special instance of the Radio Bearer that are only
used for carrying RRC and NAS signalling messages. There are 3 SRBs defined.

SRB0 is for RRC messages using the CCCH logical channel;

SRB1 is for RRC messages (which may include a piggybacked NAS message) as well
asforNAS messages prior to the establishment of SRB2, all using DCCH logical channel;
SRB2 is for NAS messages, using DCCH logical channel. SRB2 has a lower-priority than
SRB1 and is always configured by E-UTRAN after security activation.

Downlink piggybacking of NAS messages is used only for one dependant procedure: bearer
establishment/ modification. In uplink NAS message piggybacking is used only for transferring
the initial NAS message during connection setup.
The NAS messages transferred via SRB2 are also contained in RRC messages, which however
do not include any RRC protocol control information.
All RRC messages, including those containing a NAS or a non-3GPP message, are integrity
protected and ciphered by PDCP. NAS independently applies integrity protection and ciphering
to the NAS messages.

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User plane
APPs

TCP/UDP

Control plane
NAS (GMM, SM)

RRC

IP

SRB0

SRB1

SRB2

DTCH

CCCH

DCCH

DCCH

Application data
User plane
signalling

RRC signalling

RRC signalling
NAS piggybacking

NAS signalling
Lower priority

Fig. 5 Signalling Radio Bearers

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Radio Resource Control

RRC Messages
RRC is the principle signalling layer across the radio interface, the following list shows the
RRCmessages used over the radio interface to control connections and mobility between
theUE and the E-UTRAN.
Broadcast Information
MasterInformationBlock
SystemInformation
SystemInformationBlockType1
Paging
Connection Management
RRCConnectionReconfiguration
RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete
RRCConnectionReconfigurationFailure
RRCConnectionReestablishment
RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete
RRCConnectionReestablishmentReject
RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest
RRCConnectionReject
RRCConnectionRelease
RRCConnectionRequest
RRCConnectionSetup
RRCConnectionSetupComplete
NAS Signalling
DLInformationTransfer
ULInformationTransfer
Handover Messaging
HandoverFromEUTRAPreparationRequest (CDMA2000)
ULHandoverPreparationTransfer (CDMA2000)
MeasurementReport
MobilityFromEUTRACommand
Handover Command
Handover Confirm
Miscellaneous
RRCStatus
SecurityModeCommand
SecurityModeComplete
SecurityModeFailure
UECapabilityEnquiry
UECapabilityInformation

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Broadcast Information
MasterInformationBlock
SystemInformation
SystemInformationBlockType1
Paging
Connection Management
RRCConnectionReconfiguration
RRCConnectionReconfiguration
Complete
RRCConnection
ReconfigurationFailure
RRCConnectionReestablishment
RRCConnection
ReestablishmentComplete
RRCConnection
ReestablishmentReject
RRCConnection
ReestablishmentRequest
RRCConnectionReject
RRCConnectionRelease
RRCConnectionRequest
RRCConnectionSetup
RRCConnectionSetupComplete

NAS Signalling
DLInformationTransfer
ULInformationTransfer
Handover Messaging
HandoverFromEUTRA
PreparationRequest (CDMA2000)
ULHandoverPreparationTransfer
(CDMA2000)
MeasurementReport
MobilityFromEUTRACommand
Handover Command
Handover Confirm
Miscellaneous
RRCStatus
SecurityModeCommand
SecurityModeComplete
SecurityModeFailure
UECapabilityEnquiry
UECapabilityInformation

Fig. 6 RRC Control Messages

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