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Single RAN Features, Rel. SRAN
21A, Operating Documentation,
Issue 06
LTE41: PDCP, RLC and MAC
Support
DN251052848
Issue 01
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction to the feature ......................................................................................................... 6
2 Benefits .......................................................................................................................................... 7
3 Functional description .................................................................................................................. 8
3.1 Functional details .............................................................................................................. 8
4 System impacts .......................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Interdependencies between features .......................................................................... 16
5 LTE41 reference data ................................................................................................................ 17
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List of Figures
Figure 1 Layer 2 downlink, transmitting side ............................................................................. 8
Figure 2 Layer 2 uplink, receiving side ........................................................................................ 9
Figure 3 PDCP U-plane and C-plane ......................................................................................... 14
Figure 4 PDCP U-plane and C-plane ......................................................................................... 15
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List of Tables
Table 1 Mapping of logical channels onto transport channels in DL .................................... 10
Table 2 Mapping of transport channels onto logical channels in UL .................................... 10
Table 3 New parameters introduced by LTE41 ....................................................................... 17
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1. Introduction to the feature
The PDCP, RLC, and MAC are the layer 2 protocols of the radio interface:
Packet data convergence protocol (PDCP): The main functions of PDCP are encryption
and integrity protection (C-plane only).
Radio link control (RLC): The RLC protocol is responsible for segmenting and
concatenation of the packet data convergence protocol-protocol data units (PDCP-PDUs)
for radio interface transmission. It also performs error correction with the automatic
repeat request (ARQ) method.
Medium access control (MAC): The MAC layer is responsible for scheduling the data
according to priorities, and multiplexing the data to the layer 1 transport blocks. The MAC
layer also provides error correction with hybrid ARQ (HARQ).
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2. Benefits
The feature provides an efficient L2 functionality for data services.
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3. Functional description
3.1 Functional details
Overview
The radio layer 2 is split into the following sublayers: medium access control (MAC), radio link
control (RLC) and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP).
Figure 1: Layer 2 downlink, transmitting side
In the DL direction, the PDCP and RLC sublayers provide the data transfer services from the
radio bearers to the logical channels. The MAC sublayer provides the data transfer services
on the logical channels which are mapped onto the transport channels.
In the UL direction, the MAC sublayer uses the data transfer services provided by the
physical layer on the transport channels. The transport channels are mapped to logical
channels. The RLC and PDCP sublayers provide the data transfer to the radio bearers. An
overview of the UL direction is given in Figure: Layer 2 uplink, receiving side.
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Figure 2: Layer 2 uplink, receiving side
MAC sublayer
The following are the main functions of the MAC sublayer:
mapping between logical channels and transport channels
scheduling information reporting
error correction through HARQ
priority handling between logical channels of one UE
priority handling between UEs through dynamic scheduling
transport format selection
logical channel prioritization (UE)
time alignment
The eNB maps the logical channels to the transport channels in the DL as shown in Table:
Mapping of logical channels onto transport channels in DL.
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Table 1: Mapping of logical channels onto transport channels in DL
Logical channel Transport channel
MIB of BCCH BCH
dynamic system information of BCCH DL-SCH
PCCH PCH
CCCH DL-SCH
DCCH DL-SCH
DTCH DL-SCH
MTCH MCCH
The eNB maps the transport channels to the logical channels in the UL as shown in Table:
Mapping of transport channels onto logical channels in UL.
Table 2: Mapping of transport channels onto logical channels in UL
Transport channel Logical channel
UL-SCH UL CCCH, UL DCCH, UL DTCH
UL-RACH no logical channel
HARQ is an error detection and correction procedure. It is located in the MAC sublayer. The
BTS applies incremental redundancy in retransmission. The HARQ procedure is applied for
common control channel (CCCH), dedicated control channel (DCCH), and dedicated traffic
channel (DTCH).
The MAC-sublayer supports control and configuration procedures for DRX functionality with
long DRX cycles.
The MAC-sublayer is responsible for the following TDD features:
ACK/NACK bundling for TDD
UL-DL configuration 1
UL-DL configuration 2
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 3
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 4
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 5
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DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 6
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 7
DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS with special subframe 9
Inter frequency handover for TDD
RLC sublayer
The following are the main functions of the RLC sublayer:
transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs)
error correction through ARQ (only for AM data transfer)
concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs) (not valid
with TM transfer)
resegmentation and reassembly of RLC data PDUs (only for AM data transfer)
in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs (not valid with TM transfer)
duplicate detection (not valid with TM transfer)
SDU discard (not valid with TM transfer)
RLC re-establishment
protocol error detection and recovery
The RLC can operate inthree modes:
Transparent Mode (TM): In the TM mode, the RLC only delivers and receives the PDUs on
a logical channel but does not add any headers to it and thus, no track of received PDUs
is kept between the receiving and the transmitted entity.
Unacknowledged Mode (UM): In the UM mode of RLC operation, the RLC provides more
functionality including in-sequence delivery of data which might be received out of
sequence.
Acknowledged Mode (AM): In addition to UM, with AM, the RLC provides the
retransmission if PDUs are lost as a result of operations in the lower layers.
For BCCH, PCCH, and DL CCCH using TM data transfer, the TM RLC transmitting entity in the
eNB forms the RLC PDU from the whole RLC SDU only when a transmission opportunity has
been notified by a lower layer and is then delivered to the lower layer. Neither segmentation
nor concatenation is done on RLC SDU to form the RLC PDU. No RLC PDU header is attached
to the transparent mode data (TMD) PDU.
For UL CCCH using TM data transfer, the TM RLC receiving entity in the eNB delivers the
whole TMD PDU (=RLC SDU) to the upper layer. No deconcatenation and reassembling is
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done on TMD PDU to form the RLC SDU.
For the AM and UM RLC operations, the RLC layer receives data from the PDCP layer, the
data are stored in the transmission buffer and then, based on the resources available,
segmentation or concatenation is used. For control purposes, in both directions (UL and DL)
in UM 5 and 10 bit sequence number (SN) is used. In AM only 10 bit sequence number is
used.
When the receiving entity gets a RLC PDU, it checks for possible duplicated parts and then
forwards a RLC PDU for reassembly (assuming no SNs are missing in between) and provides
data to the next protocol layer (in this case PDCP) for further processing.
In the AM, the transmitter polls status report in a continuous manner and the receiver sends
the ACKs and NACKs of the RLC PDUs and the RLC PDU segments. This proceeding controls
the data transfer in DL and UL. Thus the eNodeB polls the status reports in DL and the eNB
has to send the status reports to the UE whenever the UE asks for the report.
RLC UM is applied for EPS bearers with QCI 1-4. RLC AM can be applied for EPS bearers with
QCI 4-9.
RLC sublayer
The following are the main functions of the RLC sublayer:
transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs)
error correction through ARQ (only for AM data transfer)
concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs) (not valid
with TM transfer)
resegmentation and reassembly of RLC data PDUs (only for AM data transfer)
in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs (not valid with TM transfer)
duplicate detection (not valid with TM transfer)
SDU discard (not valid with TM transfer)
RLC re-establishment
protocol error detection and recovery
The RLC can operate in the following modes:
Transparent Mode (TM): In the TM mode, the RLC only delivers and receives the PDUs on
a logical channel but does not add any headers to it and thus, no track of received PDUs
is kept between the receiving and the transmitted entity.
Unacknowledged Mode (UM): In the UM mode of RLC operation the RLC provides more
functionality including in-sequence delivery of data which might be received out of
sequence.
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Acknowledged Mode (AM): In the AM mode of RLC operation the RLC provides more
functionality including in-sequence delivery of data which might be received out of
sequence. In addition, the RLC provides the retransmission if PDUs are lost as a result of
operations in the lower layers.
For BCCH, PCCH, and DL CCCH using TM data transfer, the TM RLC transmitting entity in the
eNB forms the RLC PDU from the whole RLC SDU only when a transmission opportunity has
been notified by a lower layer and is then delivered to the lower layer. Neither segmentation
nor concatenation is done on RLC SDU to form the RLC PDU. No RLC PDU header is attached
to the transparent mode data (TMD) PDU.
For UL CCCH using TM data transfer, the TM RLC receiving entity in the eNB delivers the
whole TMD PDU (=RLC SDU) to the upper layer. No deconcatenation and reassembling is
done on TMD PDU to form the RLC SDU.
For the AM and UM RLC operations, the RLC layer receives data from the PDCP layer, the
data are stored in the transmission buffer and then, based on the resources available,
segmentation or concatenation is used. For control purposes, in both directions (UL and DL)
in UM 5 and 10 bit sequence number (SN) is used. In AM only 10 bit sequence number is
used.
When the receiving entity gets a RLC PDU, it checks for possible duplicated parts and then
forwards a RLC PDU for reassembly (assuming no SNs are missing in between) and provides
data to the next protocol layer (in this case PDCP) for further processing.
In the AM, the transmitter polls status report in a continuous manner and the receiver sends
the ACKs and NACKs of the RLC PDUs and the RLC PDU segments. This proceeding controls
the data transfer in DL and UL. Thus, the eNB polls the status reports in DL and the eNB has
to send the status reports to the UE whenever the UE asks for the report.
PDCP sublayer
The main functions of the PDCP sublayer include:
header compression and decompression of IP data flows using the ROHC protocol at the
transmitting and receiving entity, respectively (for EPS bearers with QCI 1)
transfer of data (U-plane or C-plane data): This function is used to convey data between
users of PDCP services.
maintenance of PDCP sequence numbers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM
duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs at handover for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM
in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at handover
ciphering and deciphering of U-plane data and C-plane data
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integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data
timer based discard
active queue management (LTE1680: Active Queue Management)
The PDCP can be split up into U-plane and C-plane usage as shown in Figure: PDCP U-plane
and C-plane.
Figure 3: PDCP U-plane and C-plane
The SN assignment of NACKed PDCP Sequence Numbers is limited to a maximum number of
2048.
For the U-plane, ciphering per SAE bearer is performed. A separate PDCPu entity must be
set up for each SAE bearer. The U-plane traffic is mapped to RLCu SAP.
For the C-plane, integrity and ciphering protection are performed for SRB1 and SRB2 after
the security mode command (SMC) procedure. The PDCPc is transparent for SRB0 signaling
messages using the CCCH logical channel, that is no integrity and ciphering is performed at
all. The C-plane traffic is mapped to RLCc SAP.
PDCP sublayer
The main functions of the PDCP sublayer include:
header compression and decompression of IP data flows using the ROHC protocol at the
transmitting and receiving entity, respectively
transfer of data (U-plane or C-plane data): This function is used to convey data between
users of PDCP services.
maintenance of PDCP sequence numbers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM
duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs at handover for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM
in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at handover
ciphering and deciphering of U-plane data and C-plane data
integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data
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timer based discard
active queue management (LTE1680: Active Queue Management)
The PDCP can be split up into U-plane and C-plane usage as shown in Figure: PDCP U-plane
and C-plane.
Figure 4: PDCP U-plane and C-plane
The SN assignment of NACKed PDCP sequence numbers is limited to a maximum number of
2048.
For the U-plane, ciphering per SAE bearer is performed. A separate PDCPu entity must be
set up for each SAE bearer. The U-plane traffic is mapped to RLCu service access point
(SAP).
For the C-plane, integrity and ciphering protection are performed for SRB1 and SRB2 after
the security mode command (SMC) procedure. The PDCP is transparent for SRB0 signaling
messages using the CCCH logical channel, that is no integrity and ciphering is performed at
all. The C-plane traffic is mapped to RLCc SAP.
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4. System impacts
4.1 Interdependencies between features
There are no interdependencies between this and any other feature.
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5. LTE41 reference data
For reference data descriptions, see Single RAN System/SRAN Reference Data
Requirements
For supported hardware and software, see Single RAN Features/List of Features and
Documents/List of Features Supported in Single RAN.
Alarms
There are no alarms related to the LTE41:PDCP, RLC & MAC support feature.
BTS faults and reported alarms
There are no faults related to the LTE41:PDCP, RLC & MAC support feature.
Commands
There are no commands related to the LTE41:PDCP, RLC & MAC support feature.
Measurements and counters
There are no measurements or counters related to the LTE41:PDCP, RLC & MAC support
feature.
Key performance indicators
There are no key performance indicators related to the LTE41:PDCP, RLC & MAC support
feature.
Parameters
Table 3: New parameters introduced by LTE41
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Full name Abbreviated name Manage Parent structure FDD/TDD
d object
Cell Scheduling cellSrPeriod MPUCCH - common
Request Periodicity _FDD
_TDD
Dedicated SR dSrTransMax LNCEL - common
Transmission Maximum
Maximum Number Of harqMaxMsg3 LNCEL - common
Message 3 HARQ
Transmissions
Maximum Number Of harqMaxTrDl LNCEL - common
HARQ Transmission In
DL
Maximum Number Of harqMaxTxUl LNCEL - common
HARQ Transmission In
UL
Inactivity Timer inactivityTimer LNCEL - common
Initial MCS In iniMcsDl LNCEL - common
Downlink
Initial MCS In Uplink iniMcsUl LNCEL - common
Initial Amount Of iniPrbsUl LNCEL - common
PRBs In Uplink
Maximum Content raContResoT LNCEL - common
Resolution Timer
Large size random raLargeMcsUl LNCEL - common
access MCS in uplink
RA Message Power raMsgPoffGrB LNCEL - common
Offset For Group B
Selection
Random Access raPreGrASize LNCEL - common
Preambles Group A
Size
Random Access raRespWinSize LNCEL - common
Response Window Size
Time Alignment Timer taTimer LNCEL - common
Sales information
For licensing information, see 5G/System Descriptions/5G Licenses. Remember that for 5G
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features, you also need to configure the Use Case Level Activation Parameters (UCLAPs). For
more information, see .
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