LTE Rel-8

RLC protocol
2011.07.15

SeungJune Yi: seungjune.yi@lge.com

Copyright Notification .
No part may be reproduced except as authorized by written permission.
The copyright and the foregoing restriction extend to reproduction in all media.
ⓒ 2011. LG 3GPP RAN2 team. All rights reserved.
LG Electronics RAN2 Team
RLC – Vertical View

App
• HTTP, FTP, etc - IP

PDCP
• Header compression and Security

RLC
• Framing and ARQ

MAC
• Multiplexing and Scheduling

PHY
• Physical layer processing

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

RLC TM
‘T’ means ‘Transparent’

• SDU = PDU
RLC SDU • No RLC functions
• No segmentation
• No concatenation
• No header

Application
TM RLC • RRC message transmission while RRC connection is
(virtually) not established
• System Information Broadcast (BCCH)
• Paging (PCCH)
• SRB0 messages (CCCH)
• RRC Connection Request
• RRC Connection Setup
RLC PDU • RRC Connection Reject
• RRC Connection Re-establishment Request
• RRC Connection Re-establishment
• RRC Connection Re-establishment Reject

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

 RLC model - TM
RRC RRC
Message Message
UE/eNB Radio eNB/UE
TM-SAP Interface TM-SAP

Transmitting Receiving
entity entity
Transmission
Buffer

BCCH/PCCH/CCCH

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RLC UM

‘U’ means ‘Unacknowledged’

RLC SDU • No feedback from receiver
• Lossy transmission

SDU ≠ PDU

• Segmentation can be applied

UM RLC • Concatenation can be applied
• RLC header is included

Application

• Streaming type user data transmission

(delay sensitive, loss tolerant)
HDR RLC SDU1 RLC SDU2 • VoIP (DTCH)
• Audio/Video streaming (DTCH)
• MBMS data (MTCH)
RLC PDU • MBMS control information (MCCH)

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 RLC model - UM
PDCP PDU PDCP PDU
Radio
UE/eNB eNB/UE
Interface
UM-SAP UM-SAP

Transmitting Receiving
Transmission Buffer entity SDU Reassembly entity

Segmentation &
Remove RLC header
Concatenation

Reception Buffer &

Add RLC header
HARQ Reordering

DTCH/MCCH/MTCH

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RLC AM

‘A’ means ‘Acknowledged’

RLC SDU • Feedback from receiver

• Retransmission based on feedback
• Lossless transmission

SDU ≠ PDU

• Segmentation can be applied

AM RLC • Concatenation can be applied
• Re-segmentation can be applied
• RLC header is included

Application

• RRC message transmission while RRC

HDR RLC SDU1 RLC SDU2 connection is established
• Most RRC messages (DCCH)
• Interactive/Background type user data
transmission (error sensitive, delay
RLC PDU tolerant)
• Web browsing, file download (DTCH)

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RLC model - AM
PDCP PDU
UE/eNB
AM-SAP

Transmitting
Transmitting side
side Receiving
Receiving side
side

Transmission Buffer RLC Control SDU Reassembly

Remove RLC header

Segmentation & Retransmission
Concatenation Buffer
Reception Buffer &
HARQ reordering

Add RLC header Routing

DCCH/DTCH DCCH/DTCH

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Segmentation and Concatenation

RLC SDU 1 RLC SDU 2 Concatenation

Concatenation • Multiplex multiple
SDU elements into
Header RLC SDU 1 RLC SDU 2 a RLC PDU

RLC PDU 1 Segmentation

• Divide an SDU
RLC SDU 3
element to fit into
Segmentation
multiple RLC PDUs

Header RLC SDU 3a Header RLC SDU 3b

RLC PDU 2 RLC PDU 3

RLC PDU = (0 or 1) SDU segment + (0 or more) SDU + (0 or 1) SDU segment

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Length Indicator

RLC SDU 1
Receiver dilemma
RLC SDU 2 RLC SDU 3
• Receiver should know the length of

?
each SDU element to reassemble
the SDUs

RLC PDU Length Indicator (LI): 11bits

• Indicates the length of each SDU

element
length • One LI for each SDU element
Length Indicator • No LI for the last SDU element

Length Indicator

RLC SDU 1 RLC SDU 2 RLC SDU 3

Header

RLC PDU
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Framing Info

RLC SDU 1

RLC SDU 2 RLC SDU 3

?
RLC PDU

Segmented?
FI

RLC SDU 1 RLC SDU 2 RLC SDU 3

Header

RLC PDU
LG Electronics RAN2 Team
HARQ Reordering

HARQ#4
HARQ#4
PDU1 PDU1 Re-
PDU1 PDU1 ordering
HARQ#5 PDU1
HARQ#5
PDU2 PDU2

HARQ#6 NACK Reordering

HARQ#6 Start Timer
PDU3 PDU3
PDU3
PDU3
HARQ#5 PDU2
HARQ#5
PDU2
PDU2 PDU2
PDU3
Stop

Tx RLC Tx MAC Rx MAC Rx RLC

If PDU2 is not received until reordering timer expiry, the PDU2 is considered lost.

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

ARQ operation in AM RLC

PDU1
PDU1
Poll

ACK1

PDU2

PDU3
PDU3

NACK2
ACK3

PDU2
PDU2

Tx RLC Rx RLC

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Status Reporting
Not received
PDU6
Rx Buffer Received

300~900
PDU5 PDU7 PDU8
bytes

VR(R)=5 VR(MS)=9

ACK_SN=9
SN of the next not received RLC Data
NACK_SN=5 PDU which is not reported as missing in
NACK_SN=6 the Status PDU
STATUS
SOstart=0
PDU
SOend=300
NACK_SN=6
SOstart=900 Special value (111...111) is used
SOend=End

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

Re-segmentation at retransmission
Size:900
PDU1
Size 900
Size:500
PDU2
Size 500 PDU2
Size 500

NACK1

PDU1
Size 900
Size:400
PDU1a AMD PDU
Size 400 PDU1a segment
Size:500 Size 400
PDU1b
Size 500 PDU1b
Size 500

PDU1
Size 900

Tx RLC Tx MAC Rx RLC

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

AMD PDU segment

Original SN=1
SDU1 (size 600) SDU2 (size 300)
RLC PDU LI=600
PDU Header

1st PDU SN=1

SO=0 SDU1 (size 400 )
Segment
PDU Segment Header

SN=1
2nd PDU SO=400 SDU1
SDU2 (size 300)
(size 200)
Segment LI=200
PDU Segment Header

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Maximum number of retransmission

PDU1

PDU2
PDU2

NACK1

PDU1

NACK1

PDU1
Max ReTx
reached NACK1

RLF RRC Connection

Re-establishment
Request
Tx RRC Tx RLC Rx RLC

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

UM Window operation
1 • In-sequence PDUs 1~3 are received, and
PDU1 PDU2 PDU3
delivered to upper layer
• VR(UR) and VR(UH) are updated to 4
VR(UH)-4 VR(UR)=VR(UH)=4 • Actual UM_Window_Size is 16 or 512

2 Pull Window PDU6 • Out-of-sequence PDU6 is received

• VR(UH) is updated to 7
• Reordering timer is started for VR(UX)=7
VR(UH)-4 VR(UR)=4 VR(UH)=VR(UX)=7

3 Ack-to-Nack • While reordering timer is running,

PDU3 error PDU6 VR(UH)-UM_Window <= PDU3 < VR(UR)
is received, but discarded
VR(UH)-4 VR(UR)=4 VR(UH)=VR(UX)=7

4 • While reordering timer is running,

PDU4 PDU6
PDU4=VR(UR) is received, and delivered
to upper layer
VR(UH)-4 VR(UR)=5 VR(UH)=VR(UX)=7 • VR(UR) is updated to 5

5 • When reordering timer expires, PDU6

PDU6
<VR(UX) is delivered to upper layer
• VR(UR) is updated to 7
VR(UH)-4 VR(UR)=VR(UH)=7

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AM Window operation
1 Push Window • In-sequence PDUs 1~2 are received, and
PDU1 PDU2
delivered to upper layer
• VR(R) is updated to 3 and VR(MR) is
VR(R)=3 VR(MR)=7 updated to VR(R)+AM_Window_Size
• Actual AM_Window_Size is 512
2 PDU5
• Out-of-sequence PDU5 is received
VR(R)=3
• Reordering timer is started for VR(X)=6
VR(X)=6 VR(MR)=7

3 • While reordering timer is running, PDU7

PDU5 PDU7 >= VR(MR) is received, but discarded
VR(R)=3 VR(X)=6 VR(MR)=7
• While reordering timer is running,
4 PDU3 PDU5 PDU3=VR(R) is received, and delivered
to upper layer
VR(R)=4 VR(X)=6 VR(MR)=8 • VR(R) is updated to 4, and VR(MR) is
updated to 8
5 PDU5 • When reordering timer expires, RLC
Status Report is triggered
VR(R)=4 Status Reporting VR(MR)=8 • (ACK=5), (NACK=4, 6, 7)

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SDU discard
PDCP
Transmitter Discard indication: RLC SDU 1~4

RLC
Transmitter Tx Buffer
SDU1 SDU2 SDU3 SDU4

PDU5

 When discard indication is received from PDCP;

 RLC discards the indicated SDUs only if no segment of the SDUs have been mapped
to a RLC data PDU yet
 RLC keeps transmitting the SDUs if any segment has been mapped to a RLC data PD
U

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 RLC Re-establishment

TM RLC
Tx
Tx Buffer entity

UM RLC Reassembled SDUs

Tx Rx
Tx Buffer entity Rx Buffer entity

AM RLC Reassembled SDUs

Tx
Tx Rx
Rx
side
side Tx Buffer side
side

ReTx
Rx Buffer
Buffer

LG Electronics RAN2 Team

TMD PDU and UMD PDU

TMD PDU
Data

Framing Info (2): Indicates whether the first and last data field is SDU or SDU segment
Extension (1): Indicates the presence of next E+LI

FI E SN R1 R1 R1 FI E SN
E LI SN
LI E LI E LI
LI LI Padding
Data Data
...... ......

UMD PDU – 5bit SN UMD PDU – 10bit SN

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AMD PDU and AMD PDU segment
Data/Control (1): Indicates whether the PDU is data PDU or control PDU
Re-segmentation Flag (1): Indicates whether the PDU is AMD PDU or AMD PDU segment
Polling (1): Requests Status Report
Last Segment Flag (1): Indicates whether the AMD PDU segment is the last segment
Segment Offset (15): Indicates the position of the
AMD PDU segment in the original AMD PDU

D/C RF P FI E SN D/C RF P FI E SN
SN SN
E LI LSF SO
LI E LI SO
LI E LI
Data LI Padding
...... Data
......
AMD PDU
AMD PDU segment
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STATUS PDU
Control PDU Type (3): Indicates the type of control PDU. Currently only STATUS PDU is defined

Acknowledgement SN (10): Indicates the SN of

the next not received RLC data PDU which is not
D/C CPT ACK_SN reported as missing in the STATUS PDU
ACK_SN E1 Extension1 (1): Indicates the presence of next
NACK_SN, E1, E2
NACK_SN
Negative Acknowledgement SN (10): Indicates
E1 E2 NACK_SN
the SN of the RLC data PDU that has been
NACK_SN E1 E2 detected as lost at the receiving side

SOstart Extension2 (1): Indicates the presence of

SOstart and SOend
SOstart SOend
Segment Offset Start (15): Indicates the start
SOend position of the segment in the original PDU
SOend NACK_SN
Segment Offset End (15): Indicates the end
...... position of the segment in the original PDU

STATUS PDU
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