NR Radio

interface Protocols
RWS-180010
Workshop on 3GPP submission towards IMT-2020
24-25.10.2018 in Brussels
Topics
Control plane functions and procedures
• INACTIVE state and state transition to Connected
User plane protocols
• Functions, differences to LTE with motivation
Non standalone specific functions
• Control plane architecture
• Bearer types
Rel-16 topics

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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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RRC main functions: Connection control
RRC connection control: establishment, reconfiguration and release of the RRC connection

Initial security activation, i.e. initial configuration of integrity protection and ciphering in RAN (SRBs, DRBs)

INACTIVE state management

• suspension/resumption of RRC connection

Mobility related: Handover, measurement configuration/reporting

Failure recovery

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Connection establishment
Procedurally similar to LTE
• RRC connection request, setup, setup UE gNB 5GC
complete
UE in RRC_IDLE
• Nx connection establishment with 5GC with
UE context and capability transfer
RACH
RACH response

• Security configuration RRCConnectionRequest

RRCSetup
• DRB setup RRCSetupComplet e

• Idle to connected delay different compared Establish Nx connect ion,

UE context t ransfer,
to LTE Security setup
UE capability transfer,

– 5GC NAS service request message design is

DRBSetup

different and larger than EPC UE in RRC_CONNECTED

/ CM-CONNECTED

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Security
Security establishment procedure will be the same as in LTE
Key differences:
• Integrity protection to be supported for DRB
– Data failing Integrity protection to be discarded
• Both ciphering and integrity protection is configurable per DRB
– Certain PDU sessions may not secuirty
• Every handover may not need a key change
– Change of keys expected only if there is change in Central Unit (CU) (i.e., PDCP
location) for split CU/DU RAN

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Mobility
Mobility procedures also similar to LTE
• No procedural changes/optimisations for Handover or inter-RAT mobility compared to LTE in
Rel-15
– Main changes are to UE measurements based on NR PHY

• Idle mode: Similar to LTE

– Priority based mechanisms of LTE re-used
– Applicable also for INACTIVE
– Changes required to support NR PHY for cell reselection measurements

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RRM
Overall measurement framework is similar to LTE except beam related aspects.
• Three measurement types: intra-frequency, inter-frequency, inter-RAT measurements for E-
UTRA
• The association between a measurement object and a reporting configuration is created by a
measurement identity
• Reference signal: SSB for idle mode; SSB and/or CSI-RS for Connected mode
• Beam level measurement and reporting
– The UE measures multiple beams of a cell and derive the cell quality from the multiple beams
– Measurement reports may contain beam results (beam identifier only, measurement result
and beam identifier, or no beam reporting) in addition to cell quantities
• Measurement gap
– Non-gap-assisted or gap-assisted depends on the capability of the UE, the active BWP of the
UE and the current operating frequency

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Slicing
• Network Slicing is a concept to allow Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to consider customers with
different service requirements
• Slice selection is “similar” to PLMN sharing in terms of implementation
– Dedicated frequency priorities (as in LTE) can be used by network to prioritise frequencies that
support the slices allowed
• UE can support max 8 network slices simultaneously

• Resource management between slices: Partitioning and isolation of resources

– Largely handled via implementation with no RAN standards impact

• No direct relationship in specifications between slicing and other vertical services such as
URLLC

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Other RRC functions
System information broadcast and acquisition
• On demand SI transfer – network does not always have to broadcast SI, saves network energy and
resources
Access class barring and overload handling
• Unified Access Control mechanism different from LTE, providing similar functionality
Paging similar to LTE
• Paging occasion calculation formula updated to consider NR PHY and is S-TMSI based
Positioning
• UE operating in NR can obtain position using LTE signals and RAT independent methods
• No support for native NR methods in Rel-15 other than E-Cellid
UE capability transfer
• Similar to LTE with storage in AMF
ANR/SON (but no MDT in Rel-15)
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Motivation of the new RRC_INACTIVE state

Significant delay reduction in INACTIVE to CONNECTED compared to IDLE to

CONNECTED
Reduce the signalling overhead (on radio and network interfaces), enabling UE power
consumption similar to IDLE while improving the UE access latency
Key aspects:
• UE context storage in in RAN during INACTIVE
– UE context stores both 5GC information including security and UE radio configurations
– allowing transitions between INACTIVE and CONNECTED without involving Core Network
– UE centric mobility, e.g. cell (re)-selection in INACTIVE
– Transitions between Inactive and Connected, and mobility while in Inactive are hidden from CN

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 State transitions

INACTIVE  CONNECTED RRC_CONNECTED

• 3-step RRC procedure
Release with
CONNECTED  INACTIVE suspend Release

• 1-step RRC procedure Resume

Reject
INACTIVE  IDLE
RRC_INACTIVE
• 2-step RRC procedure for RNAU (request/release)
• Autonomously by UE:
Release Setup
– Upon reception of CN initiating paging
– Upon reselecting to other RAT

RRC_IDLE

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RAN-initiated paging, RAN Notification Area (RNA) and RAN
Notification Area Update (RNAU)
RRC_INACTIVE is characterized by
• Use of RAN Notification area (RNA) for
INACTIVE
– similar to CN tracking area for Idle

• RNA is configured per UE by gNB

– 1 to N cells defined by a List of cells or list of RAN
Area ID or list of TA IDs
• UE is reachable within a configured RNA
via a RAN-initiated paging
– RAN-initiated paging uses a RAN configured UE ID
(I-RNTI)
• RNAU triggered periodically and when
moving outside of the configured RNA

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UE triggered transition from RRC_INACTIVE
to RRC_CONNECTED

UE gNB Last Serving gNB AMF

UE in RRC_INACTIVE /
CM-CONNECTED

1. RACH
2. RACH response

3. RRCConnectionResumeRequest
4 RETRIEVE UE CO NTEXT REQUEST
5. RETRIEVE UE CONTEXT RESPONSE
6. RRCConnectionResume
7. DATA FORWARDING ADDRESS
INDICATION
8. PATH SWITCH REQ UEST
9. PATH SWI TCH REQ UEST RESPONSE
UE in RRC_CONNECTED
/ CM-CONNECTED 10. UE CONTEXT RELEASE

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Network triggered transition from
RRC_INACTIVE to RRC_CONNECTED

UE Last serving gNB gNB AMF

UE in RRC_INACTIVE /
CM-CONNECTED

1. RAN Paging trigger

2. RAN Paging

3. Paging the UE

4. Resuming from RRC_INACTIVE

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Security handling: forward compatibility for
Early data transmission
“New key” (NCC) provided to UE when UE
is suspended to be used at next Resume
• Forward compatibility for Early data
transmission UE Network

– Possibility to introduce mechanism to send

encrypted data using new key immediately RRCRelease with suspend indication and NCC
after ResumeRequest
– May be discussed in later release RRCResumeRequest

• msg 4 (Resume) can be encrypted to Earlydatatx

carry RRC reconfiguration information RRCResume (secured withnew keys)

avoiding multi step reconfiguration

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“Fallback” to connection establishment
Fallback for quick recovery in
case network cannot resume UE UE gNB AMF

• E.g., if the RAN cannot retrieve UE in RRC_INACTIVE /

CM-CONNECTED

UE context 1. RACH
2. RACH response

• Direct step from Resume 3. RRCConnectionResumeRequest

request to Setup UE Context retrieval

unsuccessful

– Avoids another RACH 4. RRCSetup

access compared to new 5. RRCSetupComplete

Connection Request UE in RRC_CONNECTED

New connection setup

Can also be used with re-

/ CM-CONNECTED

establishment

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User plane protocol stack - overview
• NR PDCP, RLC and MAC are all new UE gNB
protocols but share many similarities SDAP SDAP
with corresponding LTE protocols
PDCP PDCP
• SDAP protocol introduced to support
new flow based QoS model of the RLC RLC
5GC MAC MAC

PHY PHY

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New QoS model for 5GC
• QoS flow based marking in Core
Network instead of EPS bearers to
differentiate QoS “streams” in a PDU
session
• RAN continue to use DRBs
– All packets in a DRB will receive
same QoS treatment
• Mapping of QoS flow to DRB is left to
gNB implementation (new concept)
– Results in two step mapping:
– IP to QoS flow in NAS
– QoS flow to DRB in AS

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Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP)
• 5G CN and upper layers in the UE mark
packets for transmission with a QoS flow
identifier (QFI) UE gNB
• Each QFI associated with different QoS SDAP SDAP
in terms of delay, reliability, etc RB1
RB2
RB1
RB2
PDCP PDCP
• SDAP layer maps QoS flows to radio PDCP PDCP
bearers, with PDCP/RLC of each RB RLC RLC
RLC RLC
configured appropriately for the QoS
• MAC layer gives differentiated handling MAC MAC
(e.g. priority) to traffic from different RBs
• gNB has flexibility how to achieve the
QoS
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SDAP - Reflective mapping of QFI to radio
bearer
• The mapping from QFI to radio bearer is controlled by the gNB in 2 ways:
• RRC configuration signalling
• Reflective mapping
• A QFI is transmitted in the UL on the same radio bearer as that QFI was
received in DL
• Enable changing QFI to radio bearer mapping in a more dynamic way and
with lower signalling overhead

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Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
Header compression/decompression through the use of RoHC
Ciphering and integrity protection
• Key difference compared to LTE PDCP is that integrity protection can be
applied to user plane traffic as well as control plane signalling
Data duplication
• Key new feature compared to LTE PDCP
Duplication detection and reordering of received PDPC PDUs

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PDCP - Data duplication
• PDCP PDUs can be duplicated for transmission
over 2 RLC bearer Duplication - CA case Duplication - DC case
SDAP SDAP
• Motivated to enable the reliability/delay
requirements for URLLC applications PDCP PDCP
• In case of carrier aggregation (CA) RLC RLC
bearer 1 RLC bearer 1 RLC
– Restrictions configured in the MAC ensure that
RLC
duplicated data is transmitted via different RLC
RLC
RLC
bearer 2 bearer 2
component carriers
MAC
• In case of dual connectivity (DC) MAC MAC

– RLC bearers are mapped to different cell groups Different CCs

Cell Cell
(i.e. MCG and SCG) group 1 group 2

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Radio Link Control Protocol (RLC)
Similar functionality compared to LTE RLC:
• Segmentation to match the transmitted PDU size to the available radio
resources
• Error correction through ARQ
Key differences compared to LTE RLC:
• Does not provide concatenation of RLC SDUs
– Equivalent functionality now provided by the MAC layer. Motivated to enable
UL RLC PDUs to be pre processed within the UE before reception of UL
grant.
• Does not provide reordering of received RLC SDUs
– Equivalent functionality now provided by the PDCP layer
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Medium Access Control (MAC)
• Similar functionality compared to LTE MAC:
– Multiplexing and demultiplexing of data from different radio bearers to the
transport blocks that are carried by the physical layer
– Priority handling between data from different radio bearers
– Error correction through Hybrid ARQ.
– Discontinuous reception (DRX)
• Key differences compared to LTE MAC
– Functionality to support beam based operation for high frequent operation.
– More flexible UL configured grants
– MAC PDU format optimised to enable pre-processing and facilitate low delay

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MAC - Support of beam based operation
• Beam failure detection and recovery
– UE Phy layer monitors beam failure detection (BFD) reference signals to
determine a beam failure
– On beam failure detection the UE MAC layer initiates beam failure recovery
– Selects a suitable beam on which to attempt recovery
– Performs random access procedure
• Beam management
– Mobility between beams is performed by a combination of Phy and MAC
signalling
– RRC signalling involved only to provide a measurement configuration (e.g.
configuration of the reference signals to be measured, etc)
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MAC - UL configured grants
2 types of UL configured grants are available:
• Type 1 - the configured UL grant and periodicity is configured by RRC signalling
• Type 2 - the configured UL grant is provided by Phy signalling (PDCCH) and
periodicity is configured by RRC signalling (similar to UL SPS in LTE)
In DL, Semi-Persistent Scheduling (very similar to LTE SPS) is supported

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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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Non-Standalone: overall architecture
Dual connectivity:
• Master Node (MN):
– Overall master, responsible for
connection establishment with UE,
connection to Core network, handover
etc.
– Master Cell Group (MCG) for UE
– For EN-DC, MN is an LTE eNB
• Secondary Node (SN)
– Secondary Cell Group (SCG) for UE
– For EN-DC, SN is an NR gNB

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Non-standalone: Control plane for EN-DC
Single RRC state machine and control plane Inter Node
interaction
connection to CN based at MCG MCG RRC SCG RRC

MCG PDCP SCG PDCP

Network has two RRC entities (MCG and SCG) that RLC /MAC /PHY RRC
can generate full RRC messages
RLC /MAC /PHY
diversity
through
• RRC messages generated by the secondary can split bearer
Including
be transported transparently by the master (at SRB3
least in some cases, e.g. for first configuration)
UE
RLC /MAC /PHY RLC /MAC /PHY

Direct RRC messages from SCG over NR – SCG MCG PDCP SCG PDCP

SRB (SRB3) Interaction

MCG RRC SCG RRC

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SRB3: SCG SRB
• A new direct SRB between SeNB and UE – SRB3
– Motivation:
– Lower signalling delay over direct NR interface – no Xn delay and faster NR radio
– Less processing at MN
– Can only be used for messages that do not need coordination between MN and SN
• Can be configured based on SN decision.
– The following RRC messages can be sent via the SRB in the SCG
– RRCConnectionReconfiguration, RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete, MeasurementReport
– SCG SRB is of higher scheduling priority than all DRBs

• UE still processes one message at a time in sequence irrespective of the path the message is received
in

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Sub architecture options (3, 3a, 3x) and
Bearer types
Different bearer types based on:
• Bearer termination point of the CN interface; and
• Radio interface used for data transfer
Single UE may be configured with different bearer types
MN terminated and SN terminated bearer types
– Indicates where the data from core network for that bearer terminates in RAN
– Also indicates the location of SDAP (for 5GC) and PDCP entities in the network for this
bearer
– E.g., MN terminated bearer implies all the data to and from CN for this bearer is
through MN
– Does not imply anything about which radio interface is used for this bearer

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MCG And SCG bearer
Indicates which radio interface is used to data for
this bearer
• MCG bearer implies all the data for this bearer
is sent only over MCG radio interface
PDCPLTE PDCPNR
– RLC bearer (RLC +MAC logical channel) in
MCG
RLCLTE RLCNR
• SCG bearer implies all the data for this bearer RLC bearer RLC bearer
is sent only over SCG radio interface MACLTE MACNR
– RLC bearer in SCG
MN terminated SN terminated
• Figure shows MN terminated MCG bearer MCG bearer SCG bearer
(option 3) and SN terminated SCG bearer
(option 3a)

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MN terminated split bearer (option 3)
Split bearer:
• Indicates both MN and SN RLC bearers are configured for this bearer
S1-U or NG-U
• DL data can be sent over both
• UL data can be configured to be sent over
Xn
PDCPNR

– Either one of the two UL; or

RLCLTE RLCNR

MACLTE MACNR

– Split over both paths; or MeNB (LTE) SgNB (NR)

– Duplicated over both paths

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SN terminated split bearer (option 3x)
Split bearer as before
CN connection for data transfer is over SN
New option introduced for EN-DC S1-U or NG-U

Allows more flexible network implementation Xn

PDCPNR

without impacting LTE eNB hardware RLCLTE RLCNR

• All PDCP processing in SN for this bearer MACLTE MACNR

MeNB (LTE) SgNB (NR)

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Unified bearer at UE
A unified split bearer concept at UE
• Agnostic of the PDCP location S1

(termination point) PDCPNR

– common behaviour at the UE
• Supports MCG/SCG or both RLC RLCLTE RLCNR
bearers for a PDCP entity
MACLTE MACNR
• Change of bearer type is simple – by
adding or removing RLC bearers MCG SCG

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Split MCG SRBs
Xn
RRCMN RRCSN

Similar to split DRB but for MCG SRBs (SRB1 and SRB2) Xn
PDCPNR
• MCG signalling reliability, especially during HO
RLCLTE RLCNR
– But only relevant if there happens to be an SN at MN cell border
MACLTE MACNR

MeNB (LTE) SgNB (NR)

For DL, selection of transmission path depends on network implementation

UL packet transmission is configured by RRC to use MCG path, or duplicate on both MCG and SCG

Duplication and duplicate detection functions in PDCP

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Other MR-DC architectures
Other architectural options to be completed by Dec 2018 in Rel-15 late drop
• NG-EN-DC: EN-DC with 5GC
• NR-DC: NR NR Dual connectivity
• NE-DC: NR is master and LTE as secondary node
Based on EN-DC architecture
• Main differences:
– NR-DC coordination and capability handling
– Small changes Security requirements from integrity protection of DRBs

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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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Release 16 work programme (1)
3GPP will continue to evolve NR functionality in Release 16 (due for completion in
Q4 19) and beyond.
These slides provide very brief overview of the Release 16 work items led by
3GPP RAN working group 2 (working group responsibility for radio interface
protocols)
There is other work led by other working groups e.g:
• NR in unlicensed spectrum (NR-U), NR V2X, NR positioning, NR for non
terrestrial networks, etc

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Release 16 work programme (1)
Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB)
• Currently in a study phase
• Investigating the architecture and radio protocols impacts to introduce relaying where NR radio
interface is also used on the backhaul links to/from the relay nodes
• Motivated by the desire to enable very dense deployment for NR cells while minimising costs
associated with the backhaul network
• Aiming to support multi-hop relaying
Enhancements for Industrial IoT
• Currently in study phase
• Main focus of work is the introduction of support for Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) including
provision of accurate time reference, Ethernet header compression

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Release 16 work programme (2)
NR mobility enhancements
• Work due to start in Q1 19
• Aiming to provide enhancements for handover interruption time and reliability
NR dual connectivity and carrier aggregation enhancements
• Work due to start in Q1 19
• Aiming to provide various enhancement to CA/DC operation including faster measurement
reporting of candidate cells and faster activation of CA and/or DC
Optimisations on UE radio capability signalling
• Currently in study phase
• Investigating mechanisms to reduce the overhead of UE capability signalling

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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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Summary
RRC: Control plane functions and procedures
• INACTIVE state and message flow for transitions to RRC_Connected
User plane protocols
• SDAP and 5G QoS
• PDCP and packet duplication
• RLC functions with optimisation for UE implementation
• MAC functions and enhancements for NR
Non standalone specific functions
• MN and SN, RRC structure, SRB3
• Bearer types and unified bearer in the UE
Rel-16 topics: IAB, IIoT, Mobility, CA/DC enhancements, UE capability transfer optimisation
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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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Terminology
• NR Name of the Radio Access Technology (equivalent to E-UTRA).
• NG-RAN RAN that connects to 5GC
– Could use either the NR or E-UTRA radio access technology
– Note NG-RAN is defined by its connectivity to the 5GC and not by the radio it
uses.
• gNB Node B that used the NR Radio Access Technology
– en-gNB - Node B that uses NR for E-UTRA-NR Dual connectivity. You might
see this but not expected to be commonly used in RAN2 specs (more in RAN3
specs)
• NR, NG - are 'monolithic' terms - they do not stand for anything!
• 5G Marketing name and logo for 3GPP Rel-15 specs related to NR
– Others in the industry may use '5G' in different ways
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Characteristics of RRC states

RRC_IDLE RRC_INACTIVE RRC_CONNECTED

Network controlled mobility within NR

UE controlled mobility based on network configuration (cell reselection)
and to/from E-UTRAN

DRX configured by NAS DRX configured by NAS or gNB DRX configured by gNB

Broadcast of system information Neighbour cell measurements

Paging (CN-initiated or Network can transmit and/or receive

Paging (CN-initiated)
NG-RAN-initiated) data to/from UE

UE has an CN ID that uniquely NG-RAN knows the RNA which the UE NG-RAN knows the cell which the UE
identifies it w/in a tracking area belongs to belongs to

UE and NG RAN have the UE AS context stored, and the

No RRC context stored in gNB
5GC - NG-RAN connection (both C/U-planes) is established for UE

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Signalling flow and use of reflective QoS in RAN and CN

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RRC message for unified bearer type

pdcp-Config pdcp-Config pdcp-Config

(incl. drb-ID) (incl. drb-ID) (incl. drb-ID)

PDCPNR
MCG-Config SCG-Config
drb-ID drb-ID
drb-ID drb-ID
rlc-Config rlc-Config
rlc-Config rlc-Config
RLCLTE RLCNR mac-LCH-Config mac-LCH-Config
mac-LCH-Config mac-LCH-Config

MACLTE MACNR m ac-MainConfig m ac-MainConfig

phy-Config phy-Config
MN (LTE) SN (NR)

RRC configuration structure of the

A split bearer user plane for multiple bearers (FFS)
Overall RRC message structure

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RRC message for unified bearer type

pdcp -Config pdcp -Config pdcp -Config

(incl. drb-ID) (incl. drb-ID) (incl. drb-ID)

MCG -Config SCG-Config

PDCPNR
drb-ID drb-ID
drb-ID drb-ID
rlc-Config rlc-Config
rlc-Config rlc-Config
mac-LCH-Config mac-LCH-Config
mac-LCH-Config mac-LCH-Config
RLCLTE RLCNR
mac -MainConfig mac -MainConfig
MACLTE MACNR phy-Config phy-Config

MN (LTE) SN (NR)

A split bearer configured RRC configuration structure of the user plane

as SCG bearer when configured as SCG bearer
Overall RRC message structure

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Deployment Options

Option 2 – NR Standalone Option 3 – Non Standalone (EN-DC)

Option 5 – Evolved E-UTRA standalone Option 7 – NSA with NG Core (NG-EN-DC)

Option 4 – NE DC
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 Next Generation and Standards (NGS)
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