Next Generation Networks
Radio Resource Control: An
Introduction
EPS Bearer Concept
• End to end connection between the UE and the P-GW.
Types of EPS Bearer
• Default Bearer
– First bearer per Network that the UE is connecting to i.e. per APN.
– Provides IP Address
– Analogous to primary PDP context in GPRS/UMTS network.
– Default bearer provides an “Always On’ connectivity
– There can be multiple default bearers i.e. one per APN
This default bearer is always best effort. Unlike UMTS/GPRS where the UE can request a PDP context at any
time, in LTE the PDN connection for the establishment of the default bearer is always requested at power on.
This ensures that the UE always has an IP address which in a packet based system like LTE is a necessity.
• Dedicated Bearer
– Share IP address with default bearer.
– Linked EPS bearer ID i.e. associated with the default bearer.
– Requires new QoS parameters.
– Dedicated bearers have relatively short span of life. The dedicated bearer is setup at start of
transfer of data and torn down once the data is transferred.
Radio Resource Control (RRC)
• Layer 3 E-UTRAN signaling implemented through RRC Layer.
• RRC is the brain of E-UTRAN control plane stack and controls all the layers.
RRC Functions
• Broadcast of System Information related to non-access stratum (NAS) and access stratum (AS)
• NAS direct message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.
• UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting.
• Paging
• Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN including:
• Allocation of temporary identifiers between UE and EUTRAN
• Configuration of radio resources for RRC connection including SRBs.
• MBMS management
• Establishment, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers (RBs)
• Mobility functions including:
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting for inter-cell and inter-RAT mobility
Inter-cell handover.
UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection.
UE Context transfer between eNBs.
LTE States
• When a UE attaches to the network it is assigned an IP address from a P-GW. The IP-address is kept
regardless of if the UE enters idle mode or not as long as it is attached to the network, but is released if the
UE detaches from the network.
RRC Protocol States and Mobility
In LTE only one area for idle mode mobility is defined; the
Tracking Area (TA). TA is synonymous to LAC/RAC.
RRC Connection Establishment
• When the UE receives a paging message (Idle mode UE), has changed Tracking Area, or is going to set up a
session, it needs to set up a signaling connection with the core network. This is initiated with an RRC
Connection Establishment procedure.
• The RRC Connection is a dedicated connection used for control signaling between the E-UTRAN and one
UE.
• The UE initiates the procedure when upper layers request establishment of an RRC connection while the
UE is in RRC_IDLE state.
• The purpose of this procedure is to establish a control plane signalling between UE and E-UTRAN - an RRC
connection. RRC connection establishment involves SRB1 establishment. The procedure is also used to
transfer the initial NAS dedicated information/ message from the UE to E-UTRAN.
• After the RRC connection, Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs) are established. An SRB is a Radio Bearer that
only carries the signaling:
– SRB1 carries the RRC signaling.
– SBR2 carries the NAS signaling, i.e. between the Core Network and the UE.
• Different causes that can trigger this procedure are;
Dedicated Bearer Setup (Simplified Flow)
RRC_Idle Mode Tasks
System Information Broadcast
• The System Information (SI) that is broadcasted in the whole cell area, is carried by the logical channel
BCCH, which in turn is carried by either of the transport channels BCH or DL-SCH.
– A static part of SI is called MIB (Master Information Block) is transmitted on the BCH, which in turn is
carried by the PBCH.
• TTI = 40 msec
• MIB includes a limited number of most essential and most frequently transmitted parameters
that are needed to acquire other information from the cell.
– A dynamic part of SI, called SIBs (System Information Blocks) is mapped onto RRC System Information
messages (SI-1,2,3…) on DL-SCH, which in turn is carried by PDSCH.
SIB Contents (Table Incomplete)
Paging
• The MME sends the PAGING message to each eNodeB with cells belonging to the tracking area(s) in which
the UE is registered.
• UEs use DRX when in idle mode in order to wake at regular intervals to check for paging messages, thus
reducing power consumption.
Paging on Radio
• E-UTRAN initiates the paging procedure by transmitting the Paging message at the UE’s Paging Occasion
(PO) in the Paging Frame (PF).
• PF is one radio frame (10msec) that may contain one or more POs.
• PO is/are 1 msec subframes within the 10msec frame that may contain the page).
• PF and PO are given by following formulas;
Paging on Radio
• Paging channel (PCH) uses PDSCH transmission i.e. Paging Message is carried by PDSCH.
• Paging indicated on PDCCH
– DRX cycle defined (T = [32, 64, 128, 256])
– UE monitors PDCCH at the start of the subframe to see if a paging message is included.
-- If UE detects the P-RNTI value coded with the CRC of the PDCCH then it will decode the PDSCH
to see if the paging message is intended for it.
– If ID matches UE reads PDSCH to find which UE that is paged
Example of Paging on Radio
RRC_Idle Mode Mobility
Cell Selection
• The cell selection criteria (S-criteria) is fulfilled when;
Where
Measured Cell Rx Level (RSRP)
Min required RxLevel in the cell
Offset to the signalled Qrxlevmin taken into account the Srxlev
evaluation as a result of a periodic search for a higher priority PLMN
while camped normally in a VPLMN
Maximum TX power level an UE may use when transmitting
on the uplink in the cell (dBm).
Maximum RF output power of the UE (dBm) according to the
UE power class
Cell Reselection
• When camped on a cell, the UE shall regularly search for a better cell according to the cell reselection
criteria. If a better cell is found, that cell is selected. The change of cell may imply a change of RAT.
• For normal service, the UE shall camp on a suitable cell, tune to that cell's control channel(s) so that the UE
can Receive system information from the PLMN; and receive registration area information from the PLMN,
e.g., tracking area information and receive other AS and NAS Information.
• if registered:
– receive paging and notification messages from the PLMN; and
– initiate transfer to connected mode.
• The UE only performs cell reselection evaluation for E-UTRAN frequencies and inter-RAT frequencies that
are given in system information and for which the UE has a priority provided.
• UE only consider those cells for cell reselection that fulfill the S-criteria of cell selection.
• In order to save battery power, the UE does not always perform measurements for cell reselection. Rather
the criteria for performing the different kinds of measurements are based on the S criterion of the serving
cell.
Measurements on intra-frequency cells are performed if
If, the UE does not need to perform these measurements.
Cell Reselection: R-Criterion
• Intra-frequency reselection is based on ranking of cells; When camped on an E-UTRA cell, the UE performs
a ranking of neighboring E-UTRA cells on the same frequency. The cell ranking is based on the Reference
Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurement quantities of the serving cell (Qmeas,s) and the neighboring
cells (Qmeas,n) satisfying the cell selection criteria.
• The cell reselection uses R-criterion for cell-ranking. R-criterion is given by;
For serving cell:
For neighboring cell:
• When a neighboring cell is ranked as better than the serving cell (that is, Rn > Rs) during a time interval
tReselectionEutra, the UE performs a cell reselection to the better ranked cell.
RRC_CONNECTED Mode Mobility
Measurements by UE
• Once the RRC_CONNECTION setup has been completed, the user equipment monitors the RSRP of the
serving cell. When the serving cell RSRP drops below a parameter defined threshold, set by the sMeasure
parameter, the user equipment commences RSRP and RSRQ measurements (depending on configuration)
on the serving and surrounding cells. The UE measurements necessary for the handover are configured
from the source eNB via RRC.
• UE measures, evaluate and reports standardized ”events”. Events are used for triggering network actions
e.g. handover.
• Standardized events and parameters controlled by the network is used by the UE e.g. Offsets, hysteresis,
averaging time, thresholds. UE sends report only when network is interested in the information i.e only
when event criteria is fulfilled.
Connected Mode Mobility
3gpp Measurement Events
• Event A1: Serving becomes better than absolute threshold
• Event A2: Serving becomes worse than absolute threshold
• Event A3: Neighbour becomes amount of offset better than serving
• Event A4: Neighbour becomes better than absolute threshold;
• Event A5: Serving becomes worse than absolute threshold1 AND Neighbour becomes better than another
absolute threshold2.
Event for IRAT HO
• Event B1: Neighbour becomes better than absolute threshold;
• Event B2: Serving becomes worse than absolute threshold1 AND Neighbour becomes better than another
absolute threshold2.
Event A3
• Neighbour becomes amount of offset better than serving.
• The formula used for evaluation of A3 event is;
Where
Mn = measured value of the neighboring cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)
Ms = measured value of the serving cell (either RSRP or RSRQ)
• The user equipment uses the same offset and hysteresis values to determine when to leave EventA3
when the serving cell improves in RSRP or RSRQ relative to the neighboring cells.
Best Cell Evaluation and Handover Preparation
Best Cell Evaluation
• Evaluates if one or more intra frequency cell is better than current serving cell.
• Use event triggered and periodical reporting from UE
• No measurement list sent to UE (UE search for all 504 physical cell id and reports the cell(s) fulfilling the
event criteria).
• UE Event Trigger controlled by:
– L3 filtering (How much averaging is done before event evaluation)
– Offset (How much better in dB)
– Time to trigger (For how long)
Handover Preparation
• If the serving cell is the highest ranked cell then the user
equipment remains on the serving cell.
• If another cell is identified as the best candidate cell
then the serving RBS sends a request over the X2 link to
the target RBS requesting the allocation of resources to
facilitate the handover.
Handover Execution