What is LTE Protocol Stack Layers?

Till now we have seen network architecture of LTE. Now let's take a close look at all the layers which

are available in E-UTRAN Protocol Stack seen in previous chapter. Below diagram is a more

elaborated explaining E-UTRAN Protocol Stack:

Physical Layer (Layer 1)

Physical Layer is the first layer which carries all information from the MAC transport channels over

the air interface. It takes care of the link adaptation which is simply abbreviated as AMC, power

control(PC), cell search (for initial synchronization and handover purposes) and other measurements

including the LTE system and between systems for the RRC layer.

Radio Link Control (RLC)

RLC: In the uplink it manages buffer status report, segmentation and concatenation, ARQ(for AM

mode).

It is responsible for transferring of upper layer PDUs, Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly

of RLC SDUs (Only for UM and AM data transfer). In the other way round, it is responsible in re-

ordering, assembly and ARQ (for AM mode).

 Medium Access Layer (MAC)

MAC: In the uplink it does bear responsibility for channel mapping, handling control elements,

multiplexing, random access procedure, logical channel priority,HARQ and sending BSRs. In the

downlink it is responsible in channel mapping, de-multiplexing,DRX,Handling control elements,

HARQ.

It is for Mapping between logical and transport channels, Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or

various logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to the physical layer on transport

channels.

Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The main services and functions of the RRC sub layer includes broadcast of System
Information related to the following:
 Configuration Management
 Connection Management
 Paging control
 Security Management
 Broadcast
 Measurement configuration
 Measurement Reporting
 Cell selection and reselection
 Mobility Management

Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP)

PDCP: In the uplink it is responsible in performing the sequence number addition, handing over the

data, integrity protection, and ciphering and header compression. In the downlink it is responsible in

doing sequence delivery, deciphering, header decompression, duplicate packet detection,integrity

validation.

Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols form the peak stratum of the control plane between the UE

and MME.
NAS protocols are highly assisted during the mobility of the UE and the session management
procedures in order to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and a PDN GW

LTE Channels: Logical, Transport and Physical

Channels Details and Mapping
August 3, 2017adminLTE

What is a Channel in LTE?

The information flows between the different protocols layers are known as channels. These are used
to segregate the different types of data and allow them to be transported across different layers.
These channels provide interfaces to each layers within the LTE protocol stack and enable an
orderly and defined segregation of the data.

Actually, LTE uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel, which can be
distinguished by the kind of information they carry and by the way in which the information is
processed.

Classification of Channels in LTE:

Broadly in LTE Channel are divided into three categories named as below:

 Logical channels (What type of Information)

 Transport channels (How this information is transported)
 Physical Channels (Where to send this information)

These all three types of channel are present in Downlink as well as Uplink direction. Mapping of
these channels is shown in below pictures.–
Logical Channels

Logical channels define what type of information is transferred. These channels define the data-
transfer services offered by the MAC layer. Data and signaling messages are carried on logical
channels between the RLC and MAC layers.

Logical channels further can be divided into two categories as control channels and traffic
channels. Control channels carry signaling messages in the control plane and they can be either
common channel or dedicated channel. A common channel means common to all users in a cell
(Point to multipoint) whereas Dedicated channels means channels can be used only by one user
(Point to Point).

Traffic channels carry data in the user plane, while logical control channels carry signaling
messages in the control plane.

In LTE we have 7 logical channel in Downlink and 3 Logical channels in Uplink

Downlink Logical Channel:

Control channel: In Downlink there are 4 Control channels which carried Common channel
information as well as dedicated channel information
  Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) – It Used for broadcasting MIBs/SIBs
 Paging Control Channel (PCCH) – It is used for paging the UE
 Common Control Channel (CCCH) -It is Common to multiple UE’s
 Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) – It used to transmit dedicated control information for a
particular UE
 Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) – It is used for transmit information for Multicast

Traffic Channel: In Downlink we have 2 Traffic channel

 Dedicated Traffic channel (DTCH): Dedicated Traffic for a particular UE

 Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH): used to transmit Multicast data

Uplink Logical Channel: In Uplink we have 2 control channels and one traffic channel.

 Common Control Channel (CCCH) -It is Common to multiple UE’s

 Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) – It used to transmit dedicated control information for a
particular UE
 Dedicated Traffic channel (DTCH): Dedicated Traffic for a particular UE

Transport Channels:

Transport channels define how and with what type of characteristics the data is transferred to the
physical layer. Data and signaling messages are carried on transport channels between the MAC
and the physical layer.

Downlink Transport Channels: LTE has 4 Downlink Logical Channels

 Broadcast Channel (BCH) : This LTE transport channel maps to Broadcast Control Channel
(BCCH) and carries information like used for MIB and send information to Physical
Broadcast channel (PBCH)
 Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH) This transport channel is the main channel for downlink
data transfer. It is used by many logical channels like BCCH, CCCH, DCCH DTCH, MCCH,
and MTCH and sends its information to Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). The
information carried by this channel is SIB, Data transfer
 Paging Channel (PCH) : To convey the PCCH information and mapped to Physical
Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and carries Paging Information
 Multicast Channel (MCH): This transport channel is used to transmit MCCH information to
set up multicast transmissions. This channel is mapped to Physical Multicast Channel
(PMCH) this is basically used for MBMS services.

Uplink Transport channel: LTE has two channels

 Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH): This transport channel is the main channel for uplink
data transfer. It is used by many logical channels like CCCH, DCCH DTCH.
 Random Access Channel (RACH): This is used for random access procedure.

Physical Channels
These channels are also in both direction downlink and uplink directions. So we can divide these into
Downlink Physical channels and uplink Physical Channels. Based on Data and signaling messages
are carried on physical channels in LTE, we can further classified as

 Physical Data channels (DL, UL)

 Physical Control Channels (DL,UL)

Downlink Physical Channel:

 Downlink physical Data Channel (PBCH, PDSCH,PMCH)

 Downlink Physical Control Channel (PCFICH,PHICH,PDCCH)

1. Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) This physical channel carries system information for
UEs requiring accessing the network. It only carries what is termed Master Information Block,
MIB, messages
2. Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH): The PDSCH can carry DL-SCH or PCH. It
carries SIB information, Paging Information and user plan Data.
3. Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH): This channel type is used to carry MCH and mainly
used for MBMS Services.
4. Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH): As the name indicates the PCFICH
informs the UE about the format of the signal being received. It indicates the number of
OFDM symbols used for the PDCCH channel, whether 1, 2, or 3. The information within the
PCFICH is essential because the UE does not have prior information about the size of the
control region (PDCCH). A PCFICH is transmitted on the first symbol of every sub-frame and
carries a Control Format Indicator CFI.
5. Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH): The PDCCH carries information known as the
Downlink Control Information or DCI. It carries the control information for a particular UE or
group of UEs. Basically a DCI provides the following information. Downlink resource
scheduling, Uplink power control instructions. Uplink resource grant The DCI format has
several different types which are defined with different sizes. The different format types
include: type 0, 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 3A etc.
6. Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH): This channel is used to report the Hybrid
ARQ status. It carries the HARQ ACK/NACK signal indicating whether a transport block has
been correctly received. The PHICH is transmitted within the control region of the sub frame
and is typically only transmitted within the first symbol. If the RF conditions are poor, then
the PHICH is extended to a number symbols for robustness

Uplink Physical Channel:

 Uplink physical Data Channel ( PUSCH,PRACH)

 Uplink Physical Control Channel (PUCCH)

1. Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH): This physical channel is used for Uplink data
transmission by the UE. They may also carry the uplink control information sometimes. This
channel is the counterpart of PDSCH channel in Uplink
2. Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH): This Uplink physical channel is used for
random access procedure called RACH procedure. UE does RACH procedure to get the
Uplink synchronization
3. Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH): The Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH
provides the various control signaling. These signaling are known as Scheduling request,
Downlink data ACK/NACK and CQI information.
IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is a standalone system which resides
out of the LTE network and connected to PDN Gateway through SGi
interface.

EPC basically contains three functional elements. The first one is

Mobility Management Entity (MME).

MME is the single most control point in the EPC and responsible for
most of the control plane functions.

The second in the list of node is Serving Gateway (S-GW). All IP

packets in uplink and downlink flow through S-GW. S-GW is also
responsible for handling handovers.

The last in the list is P-GW or PDN Gateway. P-GW allocates IP

addresses to UEs and also provides interfaces towards internet and IMS.

Below is a simple network architecture diagram which demonstrates

how IMS is connected to EPC (Evolved Packet Core).
User Equipment (UE)
User Equipment (UE) is the mobile terminal which may be a smartphone
or tablet or any communication device which is authorized to be used in
the network. An IMS powered UE has two main components.

 Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)

 Session Initiation Protocol User Agent (SIP UA)

Universal Integrated Circuit (UICC)

Each UE must contain one UICC and each UICC may have one or more
of the following modules.

 Subscriber Identity Module (SIM): SIM identity information

used by a GSM network.
 UMTS Subscriber Identity Module (USIM): USIM information
used by a UMTS or LTE network.
  CDMA Subscriber Identity Module (CSIM) or Re-Useable
Identification Module (R-UIM): identity information used by a
CDMA network.
 IP Multimedia Services Identity Module (ISIM): ISIM identity
information used by the IMS subsystem.

Let’s look into ISIM which is important when UE wants to use IMS
resources in the network. ISIM contains the following:

 IP Multimedia Private Identity (IMPI): IMPI is a global identity

allocated by home network. IMPI contains home operator’s
domain information.
 Home operator’s domain name
 IP Multimedia Public Identity (IMPU): IMPU acts like a
telephone number which can either be a SIP URI (sip :<
username>@<host> :< port>) or a tel URI as defined in RFC
39664 (tel :< country
code><national_destination_code><subscriber_number>).
 Secret Key: This long secret key is used for user authentication
and SIP registration.

SIP User Agent (SIP-UA)

SIP User Agent resides in the UE to transmit and receive SIP messages.
SIP-UA provides basic telephony functionality. It can act in two
different roles:

 User Agent Client (UAC): As a client to send SIP request

  User Agent Server (UAS): As a server to receive requests and
send response

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

For VoLTE and IMS prospective two nodes are important in the
Evolved Packet Core.

Public Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW)

PDN Gateway is responsible for allocating IP addresses to UEs. PDN-

GW is also the point of communication between EUTRA and non-3GPP
services like internet.

When IMS is used there can be more that one PDN-GW in the EPC one
for internet and one for IMS.

Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF)

The PCRF provides real-time determination of what types of traffic are

allowed under what conditions, and also determines how to account for
this traffic (for billing purposes). Based on requests for IMS services, the
PCRF also initiates the appropriate bearers.

When a user initiate a VoLTE call PCRF checks if that user is allowed
to start a VoLTE call or not and if it is allowed PCRF set up dedicated
bearer.

IMS Core
MS core is responsible for session management and media control.
IMS core has the following important nodes.

Call Session Control Function (CSCF)

CSCF is responsible for establishing, monitoring, supporting and

releasing multimedia sessions. It has three different functional elements
which may or may not be separate physical entities.

 Proxy CSCF: P-CSCF is seen as the initial point of contact from

any SIP User Agent. It handles all requests from the UE and is,
from the UE’s point of view, the “SIP proxy” to the entire
subsystem.
 Serving CSCF: S-CSCF has knowledge about the user and what
applications are available to the user. It acts as a decision point and
it’s main job is to decide whether or not the user’s SIP messages
will be forwarded to the application servers.
  Interrogating CSCF: I-CSCF is the entity that initiates the
assignment of a user to an S-CSCF (by querying the HSS) during
registration.

Home Subscriber Server (HSS)

HSS is a database that maintains user profile and location information

and is responsible for name/address resolution. HSS is also responsible
for authentication and authorization.

Subscriber Location Function (SLF)

SLF is responsible for assigning HSS to user in home network. To

achieve this function SLF keeps track of all HSSes.

Media Gateways

Media Gateway resides at the inteface between SIP based IMS network
and traditional PSTN network. More details are found in RFC 3372
(Session Initiation Protocol for Telephones (SIP-T): Context and
Architectures)

Media Gateway Control Function(MGCF)

Media Gateway Control Function controls media gateways, converts

codecs where necessary and may serve as a breakout to a circuit-
switched network.

In the case when MGCF works as a breakout to CS network it is also

responsible for managing the conversion of signaling messages,
converting SIP messaging to the Bearer Independent Call Control
(BICC) and ISDN User Part (ISUP) protocols used in legacy systems.

Breakout Gateway Control Function (BGCF)

When Media Gateway Control Function does not include breakout to

circuit-switched network, BGCF takes care of this functionality.