LTE Quick Reference  

                                    
 
 
 
RRC Connection ReEstablishment
 
 What is this
 How it work
 When it happens
 Causes of RRC Reconfiguration Re-establishment Request
 Common UE side Process
 
 
 
< What is this >
 
It is a kind of mechanism to make a recovery when radio link got broken for some reason.
(See "When it happens" section for these reason)
 
 
< How it work >
 
it works in three steps as shown below (refer to 36.331 5.3.7 RRC connection re-establishment for
the details)
i) UE --> NW : RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest
ii) UE <-- NW : RRCConnectionReestablishment
iii) UE --> NW :  RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete
I think most of those who read this page may be pretty familiar with LTE protocol, so just by
looking at the contents of these RRC messages, they would figure out a lot of details without much
explanation.
 
RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest
 
        c1: rrcConnectionReestablishmentRequest (0)
            rrcConnectionReestablishmentRequest
                criticalExtensions: rrcConnectionReestablishmentRequest-r8 (0)
                    rrcConnectionReestablishmentRequest-r8
                        ue-Identity
                            c-RNTI: 0000 [bit length 16, 0000 0000  0000 0000 decimal value 0]
                            physCellId: 0
                            shortMAC-I: 0000 [bit length 16, 0000 0000  0000 0000 decimal value 0]
                        reestablishmentCause: reconfigurationFailure /handoverFailure/otherFailure/
spare1   
                        spare: 00 [bit length 2, 6 LSB pad bits, 00.. .... decimal value 0]
 
 
RRCConnectionReestablishment (An example based on 36.508 - RRCConnectionReestablishment)
 
        c1: rrcConnectionReestablishment (0)
            rrcConnectionReestablishment
                rrc-TransactionIdentifier: 0
                criticalExtensions: c1 (0)
                    c1: rrcConnectionReestablishment-r8 (0)
                        rrcConnectionReestablishment-r8
                            radioResourceConfigDedicated
                                srb-ToAddModList: 1 item
                                    Item 0
                                        SRB-ToAddMod
                                            srb-Identity: 1
                                            rlc-Config: defaultValue (1)
                                                defaultValue: NULL
                                            logicalChannelConfig: defaultValue (1)
                                                defaultValue: NULL
                                mac-MainConfig: explicitValue (0)
                                    explicitValue
                                        ul-SCH-Config
                                            maxHARQ-Tx: n5 (4)
                                            periodicBSR-Timer: sf20 (3)
                                            retxBSR-Timer: sf320 (0)
                                            ..0. .... ttiBundling: False
                                        drx-Config: release (0)
                                            release: NULL
                                        timeAlignmentTimerDedicated: sf750 (1)
                                        phr-Config: setup (1)
                                            setup
                                                periodicPHR-Timer: sf500 (5)
                                                prohibitPHR-Timer: sf200 (5)
                                                dl-PathlossChange: dB3 (1)
                                physicalConfigDedicated
                                    pdsch-ConfigDedicated
                                        p-a: dB-3 (2)
                                    pucch-ConfigDedicated
                                        ackNackRepetition: release (0)
                                            release: NULL
                                    pusch-ConfigDedicated
                                        betaOffset-ACK-Index: 9
                                        betaOffset-RI-Index: 6
                                        betaOffset-CQI-Index: 6
                                    uplinkPowerControlDedicated
                                        p0-UE-PUSCH: 0dB
                                        deltaMCS-Enabled: en0 (0)
                                        ..1. .... accumulationEnabled: True
                                        p0-UE-PUCCH: 0dB
                                        pSRS-Offset: 3
                                        filterCoefficient: fc4 (4)
                                    cqi-ReportConfig
                                        cqi-ReportModeAperiodic: rm30 (3)
                                        nomPDSCH-RS-EPRE-Offset: 0dB (0)
                                    soundingRS-UL-ConfigDedicated: setup (1)
                                        setup
                                            srs-Bandwidth: bw0 (0)
                                            srs-HoppingBandwidth: hbw0 (0)
                                            freqDomainPosition: 0
                                            ..1. .... = duration: indefinite
                                            srs-ConfigIndex: 20
                                            transmissionComb: 0
                                            cyclicShift: cs0 (0)
                                    antennaInfo: explicitValue (0)
                                        explicitValue
                                            transmissionMode: tm3 (2)
                                            codebookSubsetRestriction: n2TxAntenna-tm3 (0)
                                                n2TxAntenna-tm3: c0 [bit length 2, 6 LSB pad bits, 11.. ....
decimal value 3]
                                            ue-TransmitAntennaSelection: release (0)
                                                release: NULL
                                    schedulingRequestConfig: setup (1)
                                        setup
                                            sr-PUCCH-ResourceIndex: 60
                                            sr-ConfigIndex: 30
                                            dsr-TransMax: n4 (0)
                            nextHopChainingCount: 0
HEX string : 00 12 9B 3E 86 03 B5 79 E8 96 6C 30 64 99 80 20 A0 28 68 3C 1E 00
 
 
< When it happens >
 
There are several cases where this process get triggered. According to 36.331 5.3.7.2, there are
several cases as described below.
 
Case 1 : When radio link failure happened
Case 2 : when Handover failure happened
Case 3 : when mobility from E-UTRA failure happened
According to 36.331 5.4.3.5 Mobility from E-UTRA failure,
revert back to the configuration used in the source PCell, excluding the
configuration configured by the physicalConfigDedicated, mac-MainConfig and
sps-Config;
initiate the connection re-establishment procedure as described in How it
works and Common UE side Process
Case 4 : when integrity check failure indication was received from lower layers
Case 5 : when RRC connection reconfiguration failure happened (UE cannot comply to the
configuration set by
            RRC Connection Reconfiguration message)
 
 
< Causes of RRC Reconfiguration Re-establishment Request >
 
When anything happens where UE need to trigger RRC Connection Re-establishment process as
described above, UE sends RRC Connection Re-establishment Request with the cause of one of the
followings (36.331-5.3.7.4).  
 
ReconfigurationFailure : if the re-establishment procedure was initiated due to reconfiguration
failure (the UE is
unable to comply with the reconfiguration) - Case 5 in previous section
HandoverFailure : the re-establishment procedure was initiated due to handover failure as in
intra-LTE handover failure or inter-RAT mobility from EUTRA failure - Case 2, 3 in previous section
OtherFailure : Any failure caused by other than two mentioned above - Case 1, 4 and others.  
 
 
 
< Common UE side Process >
 
Whatever the case is, overall process on UE side is similar as follows. (36.331 5.3.7.5)
i) stop timer T301
ii) consider the current cell to be the PCell
iii) re-establish PDCP for SRB1
iv) re-establish RLC for SRB1
v) perform the radio resource configuration procedure in accordance with the received
radioResourceConfigDedicated
vi)  resume SRB1