Air Interface Physical Layer
in Physical Layer, Specification, Uu, LTE
The LTE air interface physical layer offers data transport services to higher layers. The access to
these services is through the use of a transport channel via the MAC sub-layer. The physical layer is
expected to perform the following functions in order to provide the data transport service:
Error detection on the transport channel and indication to higher layers
FEC encoding/decoding of the transport channel
Hybrid ARQ soft-combining
Rate matching of the coded transport channel to physical channels
Mapping of the coded transport channel onto physical channels
Power weighting of physical channels
Modulation and demodulation of physical channels
Frequency and time synchronisation
Radio characteristics measurements and indication to higher layers
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing
Transmit Diversity (TX diversity)
Beamforming
RF processing
Medium Access Control (MAC)
in Specification, LTE, MAC
MAC protocol layer exists in UE & eNodeb, It is part of LTE air interface control and user planes.
The main services and functions of the MAC sublayer include:
Mapping between logical channels and transport channels;
Multiplexing/demultiplexing of MAC SDUs belonging to one or different logical channels
into/from transport blocks (TB) delivered to/from the physical layer on transport channels;
scheduling information reporting;
Error correction through HARQ;
Priority handling between logical channels of one UE;
Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling;
Transport format selection;
Padding.
Radio Link Control (RLC)
in Specification, LTE, RLC
RLC protocol layer exists in UE & eNodeb, It is part of LTE air interface control and user planes.
The main services and functions of the RLC sublayer include:
Transfer of upper layer PDUs;
Error Correction through ARQ (only for AM data transfer);
Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs (only for UM and AM data
transfer);
Re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (only for AM data transfer);
In sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs (only for UM and AM data transfer);
Duplicate detection (only for UM and AM data transfer);
Protocol error detection and recovery;
RLC SDU discard (only for UM and AM data transfer);
RLC re-establishment.
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
in PDCP, Specification, LTE
PDCP protocol layer exists in UE & eNodeb, It is part of LTE air interface control and user planes.
The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the user plane include:
Header compression and decompression: ROHC only;
Transfer of user data;
In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at PDCP re-establishment procedure for RLC AM;
Duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs at PDCP re-establishment procedure for RLC AM;
Retransmission of PDCP SDUs at handover for RLC AM;
Ciphering and deciphering;
Timer-based SDU discard in uplink.
The main services and functions of the PDCP for the control plane include:
Ciphering and Integrity Protection;
Transfer of control plane data.
Protocol specification
3GPP TS 36.323 - Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Packet Data Convergence
Protocol (PDCP) specification
Radio Resource Control (RRC)
in Specification, RRC, LTE
RRC protocol layer exists in UE & eNodeb, It is part of LTE air interface control plane. The main
services and functions of the RRC sublayer include:
Broadcast of System Information related to the non-access stratum (NAS);
Broadcast of System Information related to the access stratum (AS);
Paging;
Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and EUTRAN
Security functions including key management;
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers;
Mobility functions
QoS management functions;
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;
NAS direct message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.
Protocol specification
3GPP TS 36.331 - Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control
(RRC)