UL synchronization is a prerequisite for the UE to be scheduled in UL

or DL

- When a UE loses UL synchronization due to a period of inactivity, it will release any

semi-static uplink resources (SR/CQI/sounding) that it may have. Semi-static uplink
resources are limited. With an increasing number of RRC Connected users the
number of RRC Connected users will at some point exceed the available semi-static
uplink resources. By letting inactive UEs lose UL sync, semi-static uplink resources
will become available for more users as only UEs that are in-sync have semi-static
uplink resources
- When the UE needs to re-establish UL sync it will initialize a random access
procedure
- When the ENB needs to re-establish UL sync it will order the UE to initialize a
random access procedure with a PDCCH order

NOTE: The ENB only needs to send timing alignment commands to active UEs
that need to be kept in-sync

As a result, random access load will increase since RACH procedure will also be used
to re-sync the uplink

pmPdcchResyncAtt: The total number of attempted 3GPP procedure "PDCCH

ordered resynchronization", see 3GPP TS 36.321 and TS 36.212. The counter is
increased when a PDCCH ordered re-synchronization is sent in downlink. Triggered
by the following conditions:
1) PDCCH order for resynchronizing out of synced UEs.
2) PDCCH order for requesting UE access attempts due to message3 failures at their
previous access attempts by using CFRA.

pmPdcchResyncFail: Total number of 3GPP procedures where PDCCH ordered

resynchronization but resulted in failure. See 3GPP TS 36.321 and TS 36.212.
PDCCH resynchronization failed after the maximum number of PDCCH orders was
transmitted. The maximum number of PDCCH orders was transmitted without
reception of msg3 from UE.
SC172 maxPdcchRaAttempts: Defines the maximum number of PDCCH
orders for random access that shall be transmitted. Range [1, 10], Default
=5

pmPdcchResyncSucc: The total number of successful 3GPP procedures "PDCCH

ordered resynchronization", see 3GPP TS 36.321 and TS 36.212. The counter
contains both successful Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) and Contention
Free Random Access (CFRA). The counter is stepped each time a raMsg3 is received
from a UE which was out-Of-Synch prior to the RACH and had triggered UL
resynchronization over PDCCH.

MSG1: UE selects one of the 64 available RACH preamble (or already knows what
preamble to use in CFRA case) and sends RA request w/ this preamble to ENB. If UE
does not receive any response from the network, it increases its power in fixed step
and sends RACH preamble again. This step is common in both CBRA and CFRA

MSG2: ENB sends "Random Access Response" to UE on DL-SCH (Downlink

shared channel) addressed to RA-RNTI calculated from the timeslot in which
preamble was sent. The message carries following information
Temporary C-RNTI: Now ENB gives another identity to UE which is called temporary
C-RNTI (cell radio network temporary identity) for further communication
Timing Advance Value: ENB also informs UE to change its timing so it can
compensate for the round trip delay caused by UE distance from the eNodeB

Uplink Grant Resource: Network (ENB) will assign initial resource to UE so that it can
use UL-SCH (Uplink shared channel). This step is also common in both CBRA and
CFRA
MSG3: Using UL-SCH, UE sends "RRC connection request message" to ENB. UE
is identified by temporary C-RNTI (assigned in the previous step by eNodeB). This
step is common in both CBRA and CFRA

MSG4: ENB responds with contention resolution message to UE whose message

was successfully received in step 3. This step is valid for only CFRA.