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5G NR Protocols

Rahul Kaundal
www.itelcotech.com
5G RAN Protocol Stack

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Physical layer – Overview (DL)

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 Layer 1

Layer 1 functional blocks :-

a. PDCCH – Physical Common Control Channel

PDCCH PUCCH
b. PDSCH – Physical Downlink Shared Channel

c. DL Reference Signals

d. PUCCH – Physical Uplink Control Channel PDSCH PUSCH

e. PUSCH – Physical Uplink Shared Channel

f. UL Reference Signals DL UL
Reference Reference
signals signals

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 Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)
Physical Downlink Control Channel – conveys Downlink Control Information (DCI). It carries information such
as scheduling information and resource grant to UE.

The PDCCH includes one or more control channel elements

(CCE, consists of 6 resource element group) and have
different aggregation levels as shown in table.

PDCCH use Polar codes, which combine many instances (bits)

to get a useful information (noiseless bits).

CORESET (Control Resource Set) is a set of physical

resources within a specific area in Downlink Resource
Grid and carry PDCCH (DCI). NR PDCCHs are specifically
designed to transmit in a configurable CORSET.

PDCCH can also be used to for -

• Notifying UEs of the slot format
• Notifying UEs of the PRB(s) and OFDM symbol(s) where
no transmission is intended
• Transmission of TPC commands for PUCCH and PUSCH
• Transmission of one or more TPC commands for SRS
transmissions by one or more UEs
• Switching a UE’s active bandwidth part
• Initiating a random-access procedure
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 Physical downlink shared channel(PDSCH) &
Reference Signals
Physical Downlink Shared Channel–

User bit stream (Transport block or Payload)

received from MAC sublayer over transport
channels are sent to the L1 and output gen-
erated as IQ data (Quadrature signals).

Downlink Reference Signals –

DMRS PTRS CSI-RS

• Demodulation • Phase • Channel State

Reference Tracking Information
Signal reference Reference
signal Signal

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 Physical uplink control channel
HARQ feedback for DL/Scheduling Requests
Physical Uplink Control Channel –

Conveys Uplink Control Information Modulation

(UCI).
PRB allocation

Channel State Information

PUCCH Formats- depends upon OFDM Symbols, UE multiplexing and no. of bits

Short PUCCH Format 0, 2

• Reduce feedback time

Long PUCCH Format 1,3,4

• Better coverage and stability
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 Physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)
Physical Uplink Shared Channel – The frequency domain IQ data (Quadrature signals) converted to transport blocks

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 Layer 2 – Data Flow
Layer 2 Data Flows from all four layers as depicted in the figure below. IP packets coming from layer 3 travelled as SDUs (service
data units) to layer 2 and are encapsulated in radio bearers for SDAP, PDCP, RLC layers and within MAC layer converted into a
transport block by concatenating two RLC PDUs from RBx and one RLC PDU from RBy.
The two RLC PDUs from RBx each corresponds to one IP packet (n and n+1) while the RLC PDU from RBy is a segment of an IP
packet (m).

Layer 2 data flow (Ref. 3GPP)

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 Layer 2 functions - RLC
RLC Protocol –

RLC segments the SDUs depending upon the size

requested from MAC and sends the RLC PDUs to MAC.

Transmission Modes -

TM Mode Transparent Mode

• For SRB0, paging, broadcast SI

UM Mode Unacknowledged mode

• For DBRs

AM Mode Acknowledged mode

• Acknowledged mode – For other SRBs and DRBs
Layer 2 structure – DL (Ref. 3GPP)
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 Layer 2 - PDCP
PDCP (Packet data convergence protocol), layer 2 protocol provides its services to both control plane (RRC) and user plane
(SDAP) upper layers. The following services are provided by PDCP to upper layers:

•transfer of user plane & control plane data

•header compression
•ciphering
•integrity protection

PDCP entities defined for UEs in PDCP sub layer, and each entity is
carrying the data of one radio bearer. This entity is associated either
to the control plane or the user plane depending on which radio
bearer it is carrying data for. Each radio bearer (except for SRB0) is
associated with entity.

Each PDCP entity is associated with one, two, or four RLC entities
depending on the RB characteristic (e.g., uni-directional/bi-
directional or split/non-split) or RLC mode.

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 Layer 2 - SDAP
SDAP (Service data adaptation protocol) is responsible for QoS Flow handling across the 5G air interface.

It is a user plane protocol at layer 2. SDAP will map a specific QoS Flow
within a PDU Session to a corresponding Data Radio Bearer (which has been
established with the appropriate level of QoS).

In addition, SDAP will mark the transmitted packets with the correct QFI
(QoS Flow ID), ensuring that the packet receives the correct forwarding
treatment.

For each PDU (protocol data units) Session, a single protocol entity
of SDAP will be configured. The exception to this is Dual Connectivity
whereby the Master Cell Group and Secondary Cell Group will each
have a separate SDAP configuration on the device.

SDAP structure- The SDAP sublayer is configured by RRC.

The SDAP sublayer maps QoS flows to DRBs. One or more QoS flows may
be mapped onto one DRB. One QoS flow is mapped onto only one DRB at
a time in UL.

The SDAP entities are in the SDAP sublayer. Several SDAP entities may be
defined for a UE. There is an SDAP entity configured for each individual PDU
session. An SDAP entity receives/delivers SDAP SDUs (service data units)
from/to upper layers and submits/receives SDAP data PDUs to/from its
peer SDAP entity via lower layers.
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 Layer 2 – SDAP - QoS
RRC SRB1

NAS SRB2

Data Network - Internet

PDU Session DRB1

5Q1 = 8 QFI = 1
Id = 1

IMS

PDU Session 5Q1 = 5 DRB2

QFI = 1
Id = 2 (Signaling)

PDU Session 5Q1 = 1 DRB3

QFI = 2
Id = 2 (Voice)

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 Radio Protocol architecture
With the overall network architecture in mind, the RAN protocol architecture for the user and control planes is
illustrated below ( AMF is, not a part of the RAN but is included in the figure for completeness).

In user plane, majority of protocols are same in LTE and 5G NR

but one of few differences is QoS handling in NR for which
SDAP is introduced to define QoS at more granular level (IP
Packets level).

Uplink protocol stack is similar to downlink except transport

format selection and control of logical channel multiplexing

User and control plane protocol stack (Ref. 3GPP) User plane protocol architecture -DL (Ref. 3GPP)

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 Layer 3 - RRC
RRC – Radio resource control protocol exists at IP level (layer 3) between UE and gNB.

The major functions of the RRC protocol include connection establishment and release functions, broadcast of system
information, radio bearer establishment, reconfiguration and release, RRC connection mobility procedures, paging
notification and release and outer loop power control.

The operation of the RRC is guided by a state machine which defines certain specific states that a UE may be present in. The different
states in this state machine have different amounts of radio resources associated with them and these are the resources that the UE
may use when it is present in each specific state.

Since different amounts of resources are available at different states the quality of the service that the user experiences and the
energy consumption of the UE are influenced by this state machine.

The RRC states can further be characterized as follows:

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 Layer 3 - RRC
UE States (RRC) and its transitions –

1. Registration management (RM)- Either UE context in AMF holds valid location/routing information for the UE or not? It can be RM-
DEREGISTERED or RM-REGISTERD

2. Connection management (CM) – Either UE has a NAS signaling connection with the AMF or not? It can be CM-IDLE or CM-
CONNECTED

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