RRC Connection Request

Direction: UE => E-UTRAN Signalling Radio Bearer: SRB0 RLC Mode: TM Logical Channel: CCCH Transport Channel: UL-SCH
RRC CONNECTION REQUEST message is used to request the E-UTRAN for the establishment of an RRC connection. It is sent as part of the Random Access procedure. It is transferred using SRB0on the Common Control Channel (CCCH) because neither SRB1 nor a Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) has been setup at this point.

IEs in RRC CONNECTION REQUEST message are given below:

ue-Identity (Initial UE-Identity): This IE is included to facilitate contention resolution by lower layers. It can be either S-TMSI (40-bits) or a bit string of randomValue (40-bits). If the upper layers provide S-TMSI, then S-TMSI is used as the ue-Identity; else a random value in the range of 0 240-1 is drawn and used as the ue-Identity. Upper layers provide the S-TMSI if the UE is registered in the TA of the current cell establishmentCause:The main cause values and the corresponding NAS procedure whichtriggers the RRC connection establishment are presented below: emergency: This corresponds to NAS Procedure MO-CS fallback Emergency call mt-Access: Corresponding NAS procedures areService Request (paging response for PS domain) or Extended Service Request(MT-CS fallback) mo-Signalling: Corresponding NAS procedures are Attach, Detach, and TAU mo-Data: Corresponding NAS Procedures areService Request and Extended Service Request Example1: RRC CONNECTION REQUEST message with ue-Identity as a randomValue

Example2: RRC CONNECTION REQUEST message with ue-Identity as s-TMSI

RRC Connection Setup Complete

Direction: UE => E-UTRAN Signalling Radio Bearer: SRB1 RLC Mode: AM Logical Channel: DCCH Transport Channel: UL-SCH

The RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message is used to confirm the successful completion of an RRC connection establishment. Some of the IEs in this message are explained below: selectedPLMN-Identity: This IE points to a PLMN-Id in the plmn-IdentityList of SIB1. The IE plmn-IdentityList is transmitted in SIB1 when the cell belong to more than one PLMN.The value of this IE equals to 1 if the 1stPLMN is selected from the plmn-IdentityList included in SIB1, 2 if the 2nd PLMN is selected from the plmn-IdentityList included in SIB1 and so on registeredMME: This IE is optional, and is included when available. This is the identity of the MME with which the UE is (previously) registered with. If upper layers provide the 'Registered MME', then the IEregisteredMME is set as follows: If the PLMN identity of the 'Registered MME' is different from the PLMN selected by the upper layers ( selectedPLMN-Identity) then include the plmnIdentity in the registeredMME and set the mmegi and the mmecto the value received from upper layers dedicatedInfoNAS: This IE includes the initial NAS message from the UE

Example1: RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message without registeredMME IE

Example2: RRC CONNECTION SETUP COMPLETE message with registeredMME IE included

RRC Connection Reconfiguration

Direction: E-UTRAN => UE Signalling Radio Bearer: SRB1 RLC Mode: AM Logical Channel: DCCH Transport Channel: DL-SCH

RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION message is the command to modify an RRC connection. The purpose of this procedure is, To establish/modify/release Radio Bearers To perform Handover To setup/modify/release Measurements To add/modify/release SCells Dedicated NAS Information might also be transferred from eNodeB to UE

Differences with 3G system's radio resource configuration procedure: In LTE, RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION is the only message used to perform all logical, transport, and physical channel configurations where as in case UMTS, there exists Transport Channel, Physical Channel and Radio Bearer Reconfiguration messages In LTE, RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION can also be used to send NASdedicated signalling to the UE to reduce the latency whereas this option is not available in 3G LTE has only one RRC connected mode state (RRC_CONNECTED), so it has only one Temporary Radio Network Temporary Identity (RNTI) i.e. C-RNTI In 3G, MEASUREMENT CONTROL is used to setup/modify/release measurements where as in LTE, RRCCONNECTION RECONFIGURATION message is the only message for this purpose E-UTRAN includes the mobilityControlInfo (Handover) only when AS-security has been activated, andSRB2 with at least one DRB are setup but not suspended. The establishment of RBs (other than SRB1, which is established during RRC connection establishment) is included only when AS-security has been activated If the UE is unable to comply with (part of) the configuration included in the RRC CONNECTIONRECONFIGURATION message, the UE shall continue using the configuration used prior to the reception of RRCCONNECTION RECONFIGURATION message. If the security has not been activated, UE should leaveRRC_CONNECTED state, else, UE initiates the connection re-establishment procedure which is used to resumeSRB1 operation and to reactivate security

Example1: RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION to setup SRB2 and DRB

Example2: RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION - Measurement Configuration Example3: RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION - Mobility Config Information

Example4: RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION - DedicatedInfoNAS (Other IEs are not shown)

RC Connection Setup
Direction: E-UTRAN => UE Signalling Radio Bearer: SRB0 RLC Mode: TM Logical Channel: CCCH Transport Channel: DL-SCH The RRC CONNECTION SETUP message is used to establish SRB1. It contains configuration information for SRB1. This allows subsequent signaling to use the DCCH logical channel. The configuration for SRB1 can be a specific configuration or the default configuration. The RRC CONNECTION SETUP message may also contain configuration for PUSCH, PUCCH, PDSCH channels and information regarding uplink power control, CQI reporting, the SRS, antenna configuration and scheduling requests

RRC Connection Reestablishment Request

The purpose of RRC CONNECTION RE-ESTABLISHMENT procedure is to re-establish the RRC connection, which involves the resumption of SRB1 operation and the re-activation of security (without changing algorithms). The UE shall only initiate this procedure when AS security has been activated.

The connection re-establishment succeeds only if the concerned cell is prepared i.e. has a valid UE context. In case E-UTRAN accepts the re-establishment, SRB1 operation resumes while the operation of other radio bearers remains suspended. If AS security has not been activated, the UE doesnt initiate this procedure, instead, it moves to RRC_IDLE directly The UE initiates the RRC CONNECTION RE-ESTABLISHMENT procedure when one of the following conditions is met:

Upon detecting radio link failure; or Upon handover failure; or Upon mobility from E-UTRA failure; or Upon integrity check failure indication from lower layers; or Upon an RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION failure

RRC Connection Reestablishment Request Message

Direction: UE => E-UTRAN Signalling Radio Bearer: SRB0 RLC Mode: TM Logical Channel: CCCH Transport Channel: UL-SCH IEs in RRC CONNECTION REESTABLISHMENT REQUEST message are given below: ue-Identity: UE identity is included to retrieve UE context and to facilitate contention resolution by lower layers. The UE Identity shall be set as follows: 1. Set the C-RNTI to the C-RNTI used in the source PCell (In case of handover and mobility from E-UTRA failure) or used in the PCell in which the trigger for the re-establishment occurred (other cases); 2. Set the physCellId to the physical cell identity of the source PCell (handover and mobility from E-UTRA failure) or of the PCell in which the trigger for the re-establishment occurred (other cases); 3. Set the shortMAC-I to the 16 least significant bits of the calculated MAC-I reestablishmentCause: This IE indicates the failure cause that triggered the re-establishment procedure and shall be set as follows: 1. If the re-establishment procedure was initiated due to reconfiguration failure (the UE is unable to comply with the reconfiguration sent in RRC CONNECTION RECONFIGURATION ), then set thereestablishmentCause to the value 'reconfigurationFailure'; 2. If the re-establishment procedure was initiated due to handover failure (intra-LTE handover failure or inter-RAT mobility from EUTRA failure) then, set the reestablishmentCause to the value'handoverFailure' 3. Set the reestablishmentCause to the value 'otherFailure' if the re-establishment procedure was triggered due other causes than indicated in cases 1 and 2