Air Interface Protocols

Air Interface Protocols

Contents
1 Radio Protocols Architecture 2
2 RRC Tasks and States 8
3 Layer 2 Functions and Data Flow 13
4 Protocols Configuration Example 20

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2010 Nokia Siemens Networks
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 Air Interface Protocols

1 Radio Protocols Architecture

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Radio Protocols Architecture

Control Plane User Plane

L
3 RRC
Radio Bearer
PDCP

L
RLC
2
Logical Channel

MAC
Transport Channels
L
Physical Layer
1
Physical Channels

Fig. 1Radio Protocols Architecture

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 Air Interface Protocols

The EUTRAN radio protocol model specifies the protocols terminated between UE
and eNB. The protocol stack follows the standard guidelines for radio protocol
architectures (ITU-R M1035) and is thus quite similar to the WCDMA protocol stack
of UMTS.

The protocol stack defines three layers: the physical layer (layer 1), data link and
access layer (layer 2) and layer 3 hosting the access stratum and non-access
stratum control protocols as well as the application level software (e.g. IP stack).

physical layer: The physical layer forms the complete layer 1 of the protocol stack
and provides the basic bit transmission functionality over air. In LTE the physical
layer is driven by OFDMA in the downlink and SC-FDMA in the uplink. FDD and
TDD mode can be combined (depends on UE capabilities) in the same physical
layer. The physical layer uses physical channels to transmit data over the radio
path. Physical channels are dynamically mapped to the available resources
(physical resource blocks and antenna ports). To higher layers the physical
layer offers its data transmission functionality via transport channels. Like in
UMTS a transport channel is a block oriented transmission service with certain
characteristics regarding bit rates, delay, collision risk and reliability. Note that in
contrast to 3G WCDMA or even 2G GSM there are no dedicated transport or
physical channels anymore, as all resource mapping is dynamically driven by
the scheduler.
MAC (Medium Access Control): MAC is the lowest layer 2 protocol and its main
function is to drive the transport channels. From higher layers MAC is fed with
logical channels which are in one-to-one correspondence with radio bearers.
Each logical channel is given a priority and MAC has to multiplex logical
channel data onto transport channels. In the receiving direction obviously
demultiplexing of logical channels from transport channels must take place.
Further functions of MAC will be collision handling and explicit UE identification.
An important function for the performance is the HARQ functionality which is
official part of MAC and available for some transport channel types.

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NAS
NAS Protocol(s)
Protocol(s) Application
Application Layer
Layer
(Attach/TA
(Attach/TA Update/)
Update/)
IP
IP // TCP
TCP || UDP
UDP ||

(E-)RRC
(E-)RRC
(Radio
(Radio Resource
Resource Control)
Control)

Radio Bearer

PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP ROHC (RFC 3095)
(Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data
Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence
Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence Security
Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol)

RLC
RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC Segment./Reassembly
(Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link
Control)
Control) Control)
Control) Control)
Control) Control)
Control) Control)
Control) ARQ

Logical Channel Scheduling /

Priority Handling

Medium
Medium Access
Access Control
Control (MAC)
(MAC) De/Multiplexing

HARQ

Transport Channels

CRC
FDD
FDD || TDD
TDD -- Layer
Layer 11
(( DL:
DL: OFDMA,
OFDMA, UL:UL: SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA )) Coding/Rate Matching

Interleaving

Modulation
Physical Channels
Resource Mapping/MIMO

Fig. 2 EUTRAN radio protocol architecture.

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 Air Interface Protocols

RLC (Radio Link Control): Each radio bearer possesses one RLC instance
working in either of the three modes: UM (Unacknowledged), AM
(Acknowledged) or TM (Transparent). Which mode is chosen depends on the
purpose of the radio bearer. RLC can thus enhance the radio bearer with ARQ
(Automatic Retransmission on reQuest) using sequence numbered data frames
and status reports to trigger retransmission. Note that it shall be possible to
trigger retransmissions also via the HARQ entity in MAC. The second
functionality of RLC is the segmentation and reassembly that divides higher
layer data or concatenates higher layer data into data chunks suitable for
transport over transport channels which allow a certain set of transport block
sizes.
PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol): Each radio bearer also uses one
PDCP instance. PDCP is responsible for header compression (ROHC RObust
Header Compression; RFC 3095) and ciphering/deciphering. Obviously header
compression makes sense for IP datagram's, but not for signaling. Thus the
PDCP entities for signaling radio bearers will usually do ciphering/deciphering
only.
RRC (Radio Resource Control): RRC is the access stratum specific control
protocol for EUTRAN. It will provide the required messages for channel
management, measurement control and reporting, etc.
NAS Protocols: The NAS protocol is running between UE and MME and thus
must be transparently transferred via EUTRAN. It sits on top of RRC, which
provides the required carrier messages for NAS transfer.

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NAS Protocols Transfer

MME

UE eNB MME

NAS NAS

RRC RRC

PDCP PDCP

RLC RLC

MAC MAC

PHY PHY

Fig. 3NAS Protocols Transfer

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 Air Interface Protocols

2 RRC Tasks and States

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Air Interface Protocols

The RRC protocol for EUTRAN is responsible for the basic configuration of the radio
protocol stack. But one should note, that some radio management functions
(scheduling, physical resource assignment for physical channels) are handled by
layer 1 and layer 2 autonomously. MAC and layer 1 signaling has usually delays that
are within 10 ms, whereas RRC signaling usually takes something around 100 ms
and more to complete an operation.

TM5117 LTE AIR INTERFACE

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 Air Interface Protocols

NAS
NAS Protocol(s)
Protocol(s) Application
Application Layer
Layer
NAS System Information (BCCH) (Attach/TA
(Attach/TA Update/)
Update/)
E-UTRAN System Info. (BCCH) IP
IP // TCP
TCP || UDP
UDP ||

Paging (PCCH) (E-)RRC
(E-)RRC
(Radio
(Radio Resource
Resource Control)
Control)
RRC Connection Management

Temporary Identifiers UE-EUTRAN

Radio Bearer
Allocation of Sign. Radio Bearers

E-UTRAN Security PDCP

PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP PDCP
PDCP
(Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data (Packet
(Packet Data
Data
Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence
Integrity protection for RRC msg. Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence Convergence
Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol) Protocol)
Protocol)
Mgmt. of ptp radio bearers

Mobility Functions (LTE_ACTIVE) RLC

RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC RLC
RLC
(Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link (Radio
(Radio Link
Link
UE measurement reporting/control Control) Control) Control) Control) Control)
Control) Control) Control) Control) Control)
Inter-cell handover

Control of cell (re-)selection Logical Channel

UE context transfer between eNB

Medium
Medium Access
Access Control
Control (MAC)
(MAC)
MBMS

Notification for MBMS services

Transport Channels
Mgmt. of MBMS radio bearers

QoS control FDD

FDD || TDD
TDD -- Layer
Layer 11
(( DL:
DL: OFDMA,
OFDMA, UL:UL: SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA ))
Transfer of NAS messages

Physical Channels

Fig. 4: RRC tasks and functions.

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Air Interface Protocols

The RRC functional list is of course quite long.

System Information Broadcasting: The NAS and access stratum configuration
of the network and the cell must be available to any UE camping on a cell. This
information is coded as RRC message.
Paging: To locate an LTE_IDLE UE within a tracking area the RRC protocol
defines a paging signaling message and the associated UE behavior.
RRC Connection Management: The UE can have two major radio states:
RRC_CONNECTED or RRC_IDLE. To switch between the states an RRC
connection establishment and release procedure is defined. With the state
RRC_CONNECTED the existence of signaling radio bearers and UE identifiers
(C-RNTI) is associated.
EUTRAN Security: Access layer security in EUTRAN consists of ciphering
(PDCP) and integrity protection for RRC messages.
Management of Point-to-Point Radio Bearers: Point-to-point radio bearers are
signaling and user data radio bearers for SAE bearers. RRC is used to create,
modify and delete such radio bearers including the associated lower layer
configuration (logical channels, RLC mode, transport channels, multiplexing,
).
Mobility Functions: When a UE is in state LTE_ACTIVE, the mobility control is at
the eNB. This includes handover from one EUTRAN cell to another or also inter-
system changes. To assist handover decisions in the eNB RRC defines
procedures for measurement control and reporting. In LTE_IDLE mode the UE
performs automatic cell re-selection, RRC takes control over this process within
the UE.
MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service): RRC is used to inform UEs
about available MBMS services in a cell and is also used to track UEs that
registered for a certain multicast service. This allows the eNB to manage MBMS
radio bearers which are usually point-to-multipoint.
QoS Control: The RRC protocol will be QoS aware, allowing implementation of
radio bearers with different QoS within the UE.
Transfer of NAS Messages: NAS messages are sent and received through the
EUTRAN protocol stack. RRC provides carrier services for such messages.

RRC will use one or two radio bearers exclusively used for signaling (Signaling
Radio Bearers). One will be for high, the other for low priority. The PDCP entities of
these signaling radio bearers will be used for ciphering, but not for header
compression.
The RRC protocol in EUTRAN defines two state for a UE: RRC_IDLE and
RRC_CONNECTED. In the first state, the UE is not attached to a eNB and does free
cell re-selection. In the second state the UE is connected to a eNB and the eNB
handles all mobility related aspects of the UE via handovers. There is of course a
close relationship between LTE-states and RRC states.

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RRC_IDLE RRC_CONNECTED
UE in DRX (NAS configuration); UE in DRX/DTX (e-Node B
UE receives BCCH; configuration);
UE monitors PCH; UE uses mainly DCCH/DTCH;
UL/DL data transmission
cell reselection; possible;
UE monitors PDCCH to get
no RRC context in e-NodeB RRC Connection Establishment scheduling assignments;
(via CCCH) UE reports channel quality (CQI)
to e-NodeB to assist channel
dependent scheduling;

neighbor cell measurements by

UE (automatic UE detection);
handover;
RRC Connection Release e-NodeB knows UEs cell;
(via DL-SCH)

RRC context in e-NodeB;

Fig. 5 RRC states for EUTRAN.

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Air Interface Protocols

3 Layer 2 Functions and Data Flow

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2010 Nokia Siemens Networks
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 Air Interface Protocols

For layer 2 let us first take a look into the uplink.

Data transmission is handled through the protocol stack according to the following
flow:

1. Data is generated by either signaling control protocols (RRC, NAS) or by some

application on the UEs IP stack. An associated chunk of bits is sent to layer 2
within the appropriate radio bearer.
2. The first protocol that handles the data frame is PDCP. For IP datagrams it will
compress the IP (or IP/TCP, IP/UDP, IP/UDP/RTP) header according RFC 3095
(ROHC). Note that this is not applicable to signaling radio bearers. The second
step within PDCP is encryption of the data packet.
3. Next comes RLC. For all radio bearers the associated RLC instance has to
perform segmentation or concatenation or padding to generate bit frames (RLC
PDU) that will fit into the transport channels. If the RLC entity of a radio bearer
works in acknowledged mode (AM), then the data is sent through the ARQ
function, which will buffer the packet in a retransmission buffer until the frame has
been positively acknowledged. If the RLC entity is not in acknowledged mode,
this step is obviously skipped.
4. RLC PDUs from all logical channels arrive then at the MAC protocol. Here the
UEs uplink scheduler has to decide, which logical channel will be served and
multiplexed onto a transport channel. It is possible to combine several data units
from different logical channels in one transport block, a multiplexer handles this.
5. The lower part of the MAC entity is the HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Retransmission
on reQuest) entity. Note that only certain transport channel types (UL-SCH) can
have this unit. Here the assembled transport block from the multiplexer will be
stored in one of the HARQs buffers and simultaneously sent to the physical
layer. If the eNB receives the transport block correctly, it will send an ACK
indication via a special physical channel. This would delete the transport channel
from the buffer. If no indication or a NACK indication is received, the HARQ entity
will retransmit the transport block. Each retransmission can be done with different
encoding in the physical layer. Therefore MAC will tell the physical layer, whether
a transport block is new or is the nth retransmission.
6. The physical layer takes the transport block and encodes it (see last part of this
register) for transmission on air.

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NAS
NAS

(E-)RRC
(E-)RRC IP
IP (user
(user plane)
plane)

RB RB RB RB
PDCP
ROHC ROHC ROHC

Security Security Security Security

RLC Segment- Segment- Segment- Segment-

ation ation ation ation

ARQ ARQ ARQ ARQ

MAC LogCH LogCH LogCH LogCH

Scheduling/Priority

Multiplexing

HARQ

Transport Block
(1 per TTI) TB ACK|NACK

TrCH
FDD
FDD || TDD
TDD -- Layer
Layer 11
((
UL:
UL: SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA ))

Fig. 6 Uplink data flow through layer 2, transmitter side.

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MAC maps different logical channels and signaling data to the UL-SCH.

This is done on basis of an LCID for UL-SCH:

Index LCID values

00000 CCCH

00001-01010 Identity of the logical channel

01011-11011 Reserved

11010 Power headroom report

11011 C-RNTI

11100 Truncated BSR

11101 Short BSR

11110 Long BSR

11111 Padding

Table 1 Index to LCID values relation for UL-SCH.

The transmission path through layer 2 for downlink is similar to that of the uplink
direction.

Of course the eNB has to process the radio bearers of several UE.

Thus the scheduler in the eNB has to balance the traffic between different users. This
is done by taking each radio bearer as individual quality of service instance into
account.

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UE #1 UE #N
NAS
NAS NAS
NAS

(E-)RRC
(E-)RRC IP
IP (user
(user plane)
plane) (E-)RRC
(E-)RRC IP
IP (user
(user plane)
plane)

RB RB RB RB
PDCP PDCP
ROHC ROHC

Security Security Security Security

PCCH BCCH
RLC Segment- Segment- RLC Segment- Segment- (Paging) (SysInfo)
ation ation ation ation

ARQ ARQ ARQ ARQ (E-)RRC

(E-)RRC

MAC LogCH LogCH LogCH LogCH

Scheduling/Priority

Multiplexing UE#1 Multiplexing UE#N

HARQ HARQ
ACK|NACK
ACK|NACK

TB TB
Transport Block(s) TB
Transport Block(s) TB

TrCH TrCH PCH BCH

FDD
FDD || TDD
TDD -- Layer
Layer 11
((
DL:
DL: OFDMA
OFDMA ))

Fig. 7 Downlink data flow through layer 2, transmitter side.

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Furthermore the MAC layer supports mapping of several logical channels to the
transport channel.

RNTI types are defined to handle the mapping of the different types of logical
channels.
- C-RNTIs for DCCH and DTCH;
+ C-RNTI
+ temporary C-RNTI
+ semi-persistant C-RNTI
- P-RNTI for PCCH;
- RA-RNTI for Random Access Response on DL-SCH;
- Temporary C-RNTI for CCCH during the random access procedure;
- SI-RNTI for BCCH.
I.e. the MAC scheduling via PDCCH is performed by using the appropriate RNTI.

A MAC PDU consist of a MAC header and there might be MAC control elements,
MAC SDUs and Padding. The header itself is made of subheaders.
The subheader consists of various fields:
R: Reserved bit
LCID: Logical Channel ID
E: Extension bit tells if more subheader will follow
F: Indicates the length of the length field (7 or 15 bit)
L: Length field gives the length of the corresponding MAC SDU or control element in
byte
The LCID for DL-SCH are defined in the following way:

Index LCID values

00000 CCCH

00001-01010 Identity of the logical channel

01011-11011 Reserved

11100 UE Contention Resolution Identity

11101 Timing Advance

11110 DRX Command

11111 Padding

Table 2 Index to LCID values relation for DL-SCH.

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Fig. 8: Structure of the MAC PDU

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 Air Interface Protocols

4 Protocols Configuration Example

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Air Interface Protocols

In this example it is assumed that the user is having in parallel 2 downlink

applications: an E-Mail download and an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) download. The
target is to show how the air interface protocols could be configured for this scenario.
It is further assumed that the signaling for the connection setup is already done (i.e.
the UE is already in the RRC_CONNECTED state). However, it is assumed that
security activation (ciphering) has still to be done.
Configuration Description
Protocol Configuration for the Control Plane: The NAS Signaling it is transferred
using the RRC protocol. This is done with the help of the Signaling Radio Bearers
SRBs. In the LTE implementation there are 3 SRBs:
SRB0 is for RRC messages using the CCCH logical channel (not shown in the
example because the assumption is that the UE is already in RRC_CONNECTED
state)
SRB1 is for RRC messages (which may include a piggybacked NAS message) as
well as for NAS messages prior to the establishment of SRB2, all using DCCH logical
channel;
SRB2 is for NAS messages, using DCCH logical channel. SRB2 has a lower-priority
than SRB1 and is always configured by E-UTRAN after security activation.
The SRB1 is established during the RRC Connection establishment procedure (using
the SRB 0). After having initiated the initial security activation procedure, E-UTRAN
initiates the establishment of SRB2.
Once security is activated, all RRC messages on SRB1 and SRB2, including those
containing NAS or non-3GPP messages, are integrity protected and ciphered by
PDCP. NAS independently applies integrity protection and ciphering to the NAS
messages.
The SRBs are transported using the acknowledged mode RLC. The SRBs will be
further mapped to the logical channel DCCH (Dedicated Control Channels).

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 Air Interface Protocols

Protocol Configuration for the User Plane: The E-Mail application will be
transmitted using UDP (connectionless protocol) and the FTP Application will be sent
using the TCP (connection oriented). The reason for this is that the transmission of
the FTP should be more reliable from the QoS point of view. This is also the reason
why 2 different user plane data radio bearers (DRBs) have to be used for this
scenario. Both applications are then using the IP (Internet Protocol). The DRBs are
established using the signaling radio bearers SRBs.
The user plane radio bearers are transported further using the acknowledged mode
RLC. The radio bearer 1 which is caring the e-mail will be mapped on the logical
channel DTCH1 (Dedicated Traffic Channel) and the radio bearer 2 which is caring
the FTP download will be mapped on the DCCH2. The logical channels will be further
explained in chapter 5.

Common Configuration for control plane and the user plane:

The logical channels belonging to both the user plane and the control plane, i.e.
DCCH1, DCCH2, DTCH1 and DTCH2 are mapped by the MAC layer to the same
transport channel. In downlink the transport channel is DL-SCH (Downlink Shared
Channel).
The physical layer is mapping the transport channel DL-SCH to the physical channel
PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel).
The details of the DL-SCH, PDSCH as well as the mapping of the logical channels to
the transport channels and to the physical channels are discussed in chapter 5

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Air Interface Protocols

Protocols Configuration Example - Downlink

E-mail FTP
NAS
UDP TCP
RRC IP IP
SRB1 SRB2 DRB1 DRB2

PDCP Integrity&ciphering Ciphering&ROHC

RLC AM AM AM AM

Logical Channels DCCH1 DCCH2 DTCH1 DTCH2

MAC

Transport Channels DL-SCH

Physical Layer

Physical Channels PDSCH

Fig. 9Protocols Configuration Example - Downlink

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 Air Interface Protocols

E-Mail (IP packet) FTP Download (IP packet)

Header Payload Header Payload

PDCP H H Payload
Payload

PDCP PDCP
PDCP SDU PDCP SDU
Header Header

RLC
PDCP PDU PDCP PDU

RLC RLC RLC

RLC SDU RLC SDU RLC SDU
Header Header Header

MAC MAC MAC

RLC PDU RLC PDU
Header Header

Transport block CRC Transport block CRC

PHY

Fig. 10Data Flow Example

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Air Interface Protocols

In this example, two IP packets are transmitted over the air interface:
The first IP packet it is assumed to come from the E-Mail application and the scond
IP packet is comming from the FTP download.
One IP packet is containing the header and the payload. The header length is
dependent on the IP version used: IPv4 or IPv6 (a higher length for IPv6). The
payload is containing the user data (E-Mail or FTP transfer) together with UDP/TCP
control fields.

PDCP layer: The IP packets are passed through the PDCP layer which is performing
IP header compression and ciphering. Therefore a PDCP header is required. The
PDCP SDU (Service Data Unit data comming from higher layers to the PDCP
layer) together with the PDCP header are forming together the PDCP PDU
(Protocol Data Unit). The PDCP PDUs are passed down to the RLC layer.
RLC layer: the RLC configuration is AM (acknowledged mode) for both applications
from this example. The second functionality of the RLC layer is segmenatation/
reasembly. In the example shown the segmentation process is ilustrated for the data
comming from the second application (the FTP transfer). An RLC header is needed
for both reliable data transfer (acknowledge mode) and to be able to perform
reasembly at the receiver side.
MAC layer: the MAC layer is multiplexing together a number of RLC PDUs(Packet
Data Units) to form a Transport Block. How many RLC PDUs are to be multiplexed in
one transport bloc is dependent on the transport block size which is sent over the air
interface in on TTI (Transmission Time Interval) = 1 ms. The size of the transport
block is decided by the scheduler which should take into account the quality of the
radio link (link adaptation mechanism): it depends on the chosen Modulation and
Coding Scheme (MCS), the number of resources allocated on the air interface. Thus,
the link adaptation mechanism affects both the RLC and MAC processing
(segmentation at RLC and multiplexing at the MAC layer). Thus, the MAC layer
should add one header to indicate the multiplexing of the RLC PDUs into the
transport block.
Physical Layer: the physical layer attaches one CRC (cyclic redundancy coding) for
error correction reasons. Details on the transport channel processing at the physical
layer are provided in chapter 6.

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 Air Interface Protocols

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