Sae epc from a-z

SAE / EPC

from A - Z

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© 1999 - 2009 INACON GmbHKriegsstrasse 15476133 Karlsruhe

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this publication, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. For more information, contact INACON GmbH at www.inacon.com.

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Foreword of the Publisher:

Dear Reader:

Note that this book is primarily a training document because the primary business of INACON GmbH is the training and consulting market for mobile communications. As such, we are proud to providing high-end training courses to many clients worldwide, among them operators like Cingular, Mobilkom Austria, SWISSCOM, T-MOBILE or VSNL (India) and equipment suppliers like ALCATEL-LUCENT, ERICSSON and SONY-ERICSSON, MOTOROLA, NOKIA-SIEMENS and RIM.

INACON GmbH is not one of the old-fashioned publishers. With respect to time-to-market, form-factor, homogeneous quality over all books and most importantly with respect to after-sales support, INACON GmbH is moving into a new direction. Therefore, INACON GmbH does not leave you alone with your issues and this book but we offer you to contact the author directly through e-mail ([email protected]), if you have any questions. All our authors are employees of INACON GmbH and all of them are proven experts in their area with usually many years of practical experience.

The most important assets and features of the book in front of you are:

• Extreme degree of detailed information about a certain technology.

• Extensive and detailed index to allow instant access to information about virtually every parameter, timer and detail of this technology.

• Incorporation of several practical exercises.

• If applicable, incorporation of examples from our practical field experiences and real life recordings.

• References to the respective standards and recommendations on virtually every page.

Finally, we again like to congratulate you to the purchase of this book and we like to wish you success in using it during your daily work.

Sincerely,

Gunnar Heine / President & CEO of INACON GmbH

Table of Content

Assessment & Top Level View................................................1

1.1 Why is an Architecture Evolution necessary?...........................21.1.1 Integration of E-UTRAN with its new Concepts...........................3

1.1.2 Integration of Non-3GPP RAT's is sub-optimum in Rel. 7 because ..............................................................................................4

1.1.3 Therefore, legacy operators of Non-3GPP-RAT's cannot adopt the existing 3GPP-CN-Architecture......................................................4

1.2 Important Requirements on SAE according to 3GPP...............61.2.1 Coexistence................................................................................7

1.2.2 Service Continuation...................................................................8

1.2.3 Better Performance.....................................................................8

1.2.4 Support of any Radio Access Technology (RAT)......................11

1.2.5 Circuit-switched fallback............................................................12

1.2.6 Management of Access Networks ............................................12

1.2.1 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Reasons of a System Architecture Evolution?...................................14

1.3 Seamless Mobility Options and their Characteristics..............161.3.1 Intra-RAT Mobility.....................................................................17

1.3.2 Inter-RAT Mobility (w/o Optimizations)......................................18

1.3.3 Inter-RAT Mobility (with Optimizations).....................................18

1.4 Architecture Overview............................................................201.4.1 Evolved Packet Core in Context................................................20

1.4.1.1 EPC vs. EPS.................................................................................201.4.1.2 Non-3GPP Access Networks (trusted / non-trusted).....................21

1.4.2 Zoom into the EPS....................................................................221.4.2.1 Functional Overview of Core Network Elements within the EPC. .23

1.4.3 Network Elements and their Functions within the EPC.............241.4.3.1 Mobility Management Entity (MME)...............................................24

1.4.3.1.1 Characteristics......................................................................241.4.3.1.2 Identification..........................................................................24

1.4.3.1.3 Interfaces & Protocols................................................................261.4.3.1.4 Tasks & Functions of the MME.............................................28

1.4.3.1.4.1 NAS-Signaling towards the UE..................................................281.4.3.1.4.2 S1-Signaling towards the eNodeB.............................................281.4.3.1.4.3 S-GW and P-GW Selection........................................................301.4.3.1.4.4 Other Selection Functions..........................................................311.4.3.1.4.4 Local Breakout...........................................................................321.4.3.1.4.5 IMS and Local Breakout.............................................................32

1.4.3.2 Serving Gateway (S-GW)..............................................................341.4.3.2.1 Characteristics......................................................................341.4.3.2.2 Identification..........................................................................341.4.3.2.3 Interfaces & Protocols...........................................................36

Table of Content

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1.4.3.2.4 Tasks & Functions of the S-GW............................................381.4.3.2.4.1 Packet Routing / Relaying..........................................................381.4.3.2.4.2 Legal Interception.......................................................................381.4.3.2.4.3 QCI-based Packet Tagging........................................................381.4.3.2.4.4 Accounting..................................................................................38

1.4.3.3 PDN Gateway (P-GW or PDN-GW)..............................................401.4.3.3.1 Characteristics......................................................................401.4.3.3.2 Identification..........................................................................401.4.3.3.3 Interfaces & Protocols...........................................................421.4.3.3.4 Tasks & Functions of the P-GW............................................44

1.4.3.3.4.1 UE IP Address Allocation...........................................................441.4.3.3.4.2 QCI-based Packet Tagging........................................................441.4.3.3.4.3 Policy Enforcement....................................................................441.4.3.3.4.4 Legal Interception.......................................................................451.4.3.3.4.5 Home Agent Function.................................................................45

1.4.3.4 enhanced Packet Data Gateway (ePDG)......................................461.4.3.4.1 Characteristics......................................................................461.4.3.4.2 Identification..........................................................................461.4.3.4.3 Interfaces & Protocols...........................................................481.4.3.4.4 Tasks & Functions of the ePDG............................................50

1.4.3.4.4.1 ESP-Tunnel Mgmt towards UE's................................................501.4.3.4.4.2 QoS-specific Packet Tagging in UL-Direction............................501.4.3.4.4.3 Legal Interception.......................................................................501.4.3.4.4.4 MAG-Function for PMIPv6.........................................................50

1.4.3.5 Protocol Stack Architecture on the UE-Side .................................52

1.4.4 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Interworking within the EPS-Architecture...........................................54

Operations Overview..............................................................57

2.1 Network Access to the EPC in case of 3GPP-RAT's..............582.1.1 E-UTRAN..................................................................................58

2.1.1.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................582.1.1.2 Related Network Elements............................................................582.1.1.3 Signaling and Important State Changes (EMM, ECM, ESM)........60

2.1.2 GERAN / UTRAN......................................................................622.1.2.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................62

2.1.2.1.1 Selection of EPC vs. GGSN..................................................622.1.2.2 Signaling Procedures (GMM/PMM, SM).......................................642.1.1.4 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Relate E-UTRAN Procedures to GERAN / UTRAN Procedures...............66

2.2 Network Access in case of Non-3GPP RAT's.........................682.2.1 Network Discovery and Selection..............................................68

2.2.1.1 Problem Description......................................................................682.2.1.2 Interworking with the ANDSF........................................................702.2.1.3 Distinction Trusted vs. Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's.................72

2.2.2 Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's.........................................................742.2.2.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................742.2.2.2 Signaling Procedures if EAP and PMIPv6 are used......................762.2.2.3 Signaling Procedures if MIPv4 is used..........................................78

2.2.3 Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's.................................................802.2.3.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................802.2.3.2 Signaling Procedures if IKEv2 and PMIPv6 are used...................82

SAE / EPC from A - Z

© INACON GmbH 1999 - 2009. All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or unauthorized use of this material is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extent of German and international laws. Version Number 2.000- ii -

2.2.3.3 Signaling Procedures if IKEv2 and DSMIPv6 are used.................84

2.3 Voice Call Establishment........................................................862.3.1 IMS-based.................................................................................86

2.3.1.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................862.3.1.2 Signaling Procedure (SIP, SDP, DIAMETER)...............................88

2.3.2 Circuit-switched Fallback...........................................................902.3.2.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................902.3.2.2 Signaling Procedure for MOC........................................................922.3.2.3 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Voice Call Establishment...........................................................................94

2.4 Macro Mobility / Inter-RAT Roaming......................................962.4.1 Handover E-UTRAN to Trusted Non-3GPP RAT......................96

2.4.1.1 Related Network Architecture........................................................962.4.1.2 Signaling Procedure (NBM / PMIPv6 on S2a)...............................982.4.2 Handover E-UTRAN to Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT...................1002.4.2.1 Related Network Architecture......................................................1002.4.1.2 Signaling Procedure (NBM / PMIPv6 on S2b).............................1022.4.1.3 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Inter-RAT Mobility....................................................................................104

Architectural Details of the EPS..........................................107

3.0 Comprehension Test & Repetition:Network Interfaces and Protocols..............................................108

3.1 Network Layout and Important Identifiers.............................1143.1.1 Organization of the E-UTRAN.................................................114

3.1.1.1 Tracking Areas............................................................................1153.1.1.1.1 TAI and TAI-list...................................................................116

3.1.1.2 E-UTRAN Pool Areas..................................................................116

3.1.2 MME Pool's and MMEI............................................................1163.1.1.3 S-GW Service Areas...................................................................118

3.1.3 Identifiers of the UE.................................................................1203.1.3.1 M-TMSI and S-TMSI....................................................................1203.1.3.2 GUTI............................................................................................122

3.2 Bearer Concept & QoS-Architecture in SAE.........................1243.2.1 SAE-Bearers, Classification and Policy Enforcement.............124

3.2.2 The QoS-Profile of the SAE-Bearer........................................1263.2.2.1 GBR - Guaranteed Bit Rate.........................................................1273.2.2.2 MBR - Maximum Bit Rate............................................................1273.2.2.3 AMBR - Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate........................................1273.2.2.4 ARP - Allocation Retention Priority..............................................1273.2.2.5 QCI-Values and their Meanings..................................................1283.2.2.6 Mapping between Rel. 8 QoS and earlier Releases...................1283.2.3 QoS-Architecture with Release 8...................................................1303.2.3.1 PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function)..............................1303.2.3.2 BBERF (Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function).............1303.2.3.3 PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function)...................1303.2.3.4 AF (Application Function)............................................................1303.2.3.5 SPR (Subscription Profile Repository).........................................132

Table of Content

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3.2.3.6 OCS (Online Charging System)..................................................1323.2.3.7 OFCS (Offline Charging System)................................................132

3.2.4 Bearer Establishment & Authorization - Differences Rel. 8 vs former Releases...............................................................................134

3.2.5 Relationship and Dependency among the different Bearers.. .136

Protocol Suite........................................................................139

4.1 The “Mainstream” Protocol Stacks.......................................1404.1.1 Control Plane / E-UTRAN - EPC.............................................140

4.1.2 User Plane E-UTRAN – EPC (S5/S8 GTP-based)..................142

4.1.3 User Plane E-UTRAN – EPC (S5/S8 PMIPv6/GRE-based)....144

4.2 Generic Protocols within the EPC-Environment...................1464.2.1 IPv4 and IPv6 and their Differences........................................146

4.2.1.1 Headers and IP-Address Ranges................................................1464.2.1.2 How to obtain an IP-Address.......................................................148

4.2.1.2.1 IPv4 and DHCP..................................................................1484.2.1.2.2 IPv6 and “Stateless Autoconfiguration”..............................1504.2.1.2.3 Real-Life Recording: Stateless Autoconfiguration..............152

4.2.1.3 Fragmentation in IPv4 and IPv6..................................................154

4.2.2 QoS in IP-Networks.................................................................1564.2.2.1 DiffServ........................................................................................156

4.2.2.1.1 Details of the AF(X,Y) PHB (Assured Forwarding).............1584.2.2.1.2 Details of the EF PHB (Expedite Forwarding)....................160

4.2.3 SCTP......................................................................................1624.2.3.1 Important SCTP-Functions..........................................................1624.2.3.2 Example of an SCTP-Packet.......................................................164

4.2.4 DIAMETER..............................................................................166

4.3 Protocols related to E-UTRA Networks................................1684.3.1 EPS Mobility Management (EMM)..........................................168

4.3.1.1 Important EMM-Procedures........................................................1684.3.1.1.1 Common Procedures..........................................................1694.3.1.1.2 Specific Procedures............................................................1694.3.1.1.3 Connection Management Procedures................................169

4.3.1.2 State Machine..............................................................................170

4.3.2 EPS Session Management (ESM)..........................................1724.3.2.1 Important ESM-Procedures.........................................................172

4.3.2.1.1 MME-initiated......................................................................1734.3.2.1.2 UE-initiated.........................................................................173

4.3.2.2 State Machine..............................................................................174

4.3.3 Radio Resource Control RRC.................................................1764.3.3.1 Overview......................................................................................176

4.3.3.1.1 Transmission of broadcast information...............................1774.3.3.1.2 Establish and maintain services.........................................1774.3.3.1.3 QoS control.........................................................................1774.3.3.1.4 Transfer of dedicated control information...........................177

4.3.3.2 State Characteristics of RRC.......................................................1784.3.3.2.1 RRC_IDLE..........................................................................1784.3.3.2.2 RRC_CONNECTED...........................................................178


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4.3.4 Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)...........................1804.3.4.1 Overview......................................................................................180

4.3.4.1.1 RoHC..................................................................................1804.3.4.1.2 Numbering of PDCP PDU’s................................................1804.3.4.1.3 In-sequence delivery of PDU’s...........................................1804.3.4.1.4 Duplicate deletion...............................................................1804.3.4.1.5 Encryption...........................................................................1814.3.4.1.6 Integrity Protection..............................................................181

4.3.4.2 Structure of PDCP PDU..............................................................182

4.3.5 The S1-AP Protocol................................................................184

Call Flows & Scenarios.........................................................187

5.1 Attachment through E-UTRAN / new MME..........................188

5.2 Tracking Area Update..........................................................1945.1.1 Inter MME tracking area update..............................................194

5.1.2 Intra MME tracking area update..............................................195

5.3 PDP Context Establishment.................................................196

5.4 Inter MME Handover............................................................200

Table of Content

© INACON GmbH 1999 - 2009. All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or unauthorized use of this material is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extent of German and international laws. Version Number 2.000 - v -

Chapter 1:

Assessment & Top Level View

ObjectivesSome of your questions that will be answered during this session…

• Why is there a system architecture evolution in the first place?

• Which improvements does SAE yield?

• What are the requirements according to 3GPP?

• Is it possible to obtain just an overview of the new architecture?

• How will the protocol architecture of a typical UE look like?

• Which potential improvements are not covered by the SAE?


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- 1 -© INACON GmbH 1999 - 2009. All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or unauthorized use of this material is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extent of German and international laws. Version Number 2.000

1.1 Why is an Architecture Evolution necessary?


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© INACON GmbH 1999 - 2009. All rights reserved. Reproduction and/or unauthorized use of this material is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extent of German and international laws. Version Number 2.000- 2 -

The objective of this section is to point out why there is a system architectural evolution necessary in the first place.

[3GTS 22.278]

1.1.1 Integration of E-UTRAN with its new Concepts

• IP-centric setupAt the end of the day, E-UTRAN is only there to provide powerful IP-bearers to the users.

Consequentially, the offering of voice services over E-UTRAN is only possible as VoIP. This means a hard cut compared to previous 3GPP-technologies and illustrates the reasoning behind the considerations of circuit-switched fallback.

to be continued on the next page

• Abbreviations of this Section:

CN Core Network RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

E-UTRAN Evolved UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

SAE System Architecture Evolution

e2e End-to-End UE User Equipment

GAN Generic Access Network UMAN Unlicensed Mobile Access Network

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) VoIP Voice over IP

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (IEEE 802.16)

QoS Quality of Service


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• Low Latency Requirements

• E-UTRAN imposes specific maximum latencies to be achieved for state changes within the E-UTRAN control plane (e.g. from RRC-idle to RRC-connected) and, even more important, during the traversal of user data through the user plane.

• In that respect, for the control plane state change latencies of app. 50 ms are the target.

• User data shall be delayed by no more than 5 ms in the ideal case when traversing through E-UTRAN. Note that this value does not take into account latencies within the EPC or beyond!"Packet-switched only" requires a serious QoS-integration with respect to e2e-integration and service differentiationThe full-scale integration of QoS is a precondition for the operation of any carrier-grade services over E-UTRAN. If different services of the same or different users cannot be distinguished and differently treated, based e.g. on their latency requirements, then E-UTRAN will probably fail.

• Amendment of network controlled bearer management -> instead of UE-managed only as in Rel. 6This important change relieves the UE from the responsibility to request the establishment of real-time bearers and allows the network, esp the PCRF to take care of this function.

1.1.2 Integration of Non-3GPP RAT's is sub-optimum in Rel. 7 because ...

• Mobility between 3GPP-RAT and Non-3GPP-RAT does almost not existAt the current time, the major difference between former approaches (Rel. 6 ) and SAE with respect to macro-mobility, is the definition of so called optimized handover procedures for certain access network combinations (cdma2000 <=> E-UTRAN).Without optimization, at the current time SAE pretty much relies on the capability of the UE to operate two simultaneous radio links to enable seamless roaming between different access network types (e.g. WiFi => cdma2000)

• In Rel. 6 and 7, non-3GPP-RAT's are conceptually treated as "alien" technologies to be amended to existing 3GPP-RAT'sThere is no possibility in Rel 6 and 7 to consider specifics of foreign access networks when interconnecting them to a 3GPP-network. Therefore, this interconnection is merely done on AAA-level with a transparent IPsec-tunnel between the UE and through that access network towards the 3GPP-network.

1.1.3 Therefore, legacy operators of Non-3GPP-RAT's cannot adopt the existing 3GPP-CN-Architecture

• Which is very critical for those operators who want to adopt LTE / E-UTRAN in addition to their already existing Non-3GPP-RAT's (e.g. cdma2000 / WiMAX)Consider an operator who has no 3GPP-access networks in operation at this time but who intends to use LTE (E-UTRAN) in the future. Without an evolved system architecture those operators would have to operate two core networks in parallel; one for E-UTRAN and the other one for their legacy access networks. This in turn is not feasible because of the high OPEX.


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• Which would be quite beneficial as 3GPP provides proven "off-the-shelf" solutionsThe number of 3GPP core networks exceeds by far any other implementation in the market. Their price and stability prospers quite a bit from the related volume of scales effects.The other possibility has clearly been shown during recent years in the WiMAX-area: The IEEE had only defined the air interface and therefore, a core network and all protocols and procedures were missing. It was finally the WiMAX-forum that jumped in and filled out those gaps but it took years and a considerable expenses which have to be settled among less shoulders.

Room for your Notes:


AAA Authentication, Authorization and Accounting

PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function (3GTS 23.203)



e2e End-to-End RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

EPC Evolved Packet Core (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)

RRC Radio Resource Control

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers


IPsec Internet Protocol / secure (RFC 4301)

UE User Equipment

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

OPEX Operational Expenditure WiFi Wireless Fidelity (www.wi-fi.org)

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (IEEE 802.16)


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1.2 Important Requirements on SAE according to 3GPP

The objective of this section is to start the listing of requirements on SAE as stated by 3GPP.


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1.2.1 Coexistence

• With legacy architecturesWe will illustrate that the SAE-core architecture is suited to interconnect to all kinds of other network architectures.

• Equal Support of IPv4and IPv6The majority of the UE's will probably support both, IPv4 and IPv6.




DL Downlink QoS Quality of Service


RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

GSM Global System for Mobile Communication


I-WLAN Interworking WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) (3GTS 23.234)

UE User Equipment

IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

IPv6 Internet Protocol (version 6) WLAN Wireless Local Area Network (IEEE 802.11)


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1.2.2 Service Continuation

• Upon Change of RATThe indicated interruption time appears to be rather high and unsuitable for real-time services.

• Upon Change between circuit-switched and packet-switched radio accessThis requirement relates particularly to the VCC feature as specified in 3GTS 23.206 and 3GTS 24.206.

1.2.3 Better Performance

• Lower latency

• Process higher data rates

• Better security

• QoS and service differentiation

[3GTS 22.278 (8), 3GTR 23.882]


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3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

3GTS 3rd Generation Technical Specification

VCC Voice Call Continuity (3GTS 23.206)



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1.2 Important Requirements on SAE according to 3GPP

The objective of this section is to continue the listing of requirements on SAE as stated by 3GPP.


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1.2.4 Support of any Radio Access Technology (RAT)

• Existing and future

• 3GPP and non-3GPP

• Trusted and non-trustedThis distinction is new with SAE whereas in prior releases every non-3GPP access network was considered as “non-trusted”. We will elaborate further later in this book.




3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project (Collaboration between different standardization organizations (e.g. ARIB, ETSI) to define advanced mobile communications standards, responsible for UMTS)

NSP Network Service Provider

ANDSF Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (3GTS 24.302)


BS Base Station (IEEE 802.16) SAE System Architecture Evolution


UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

EPS Evolved Packet Switched WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (IEEE 802.16)

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network


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1.2.5 Circuit-switched fallback

• In that case, the UE performs a combined attach through E-UTRAN to the EPC and the EPC updates the circuit-switched core network of the 2G/3G radio resources.

• This way, the UE can remain reachable for incoming voice calls and will be paged by the EPC.

• Likewise, the UE can establish mobile originating sessions. More details will be provided later

[3GTS 23.272].

1.2.6 Management of Access Networks

• ANDSFMore details about the ANDSF will be provided later.

• Access network sharing

• Access network sharing has been introduced to 3GPP with Rel. 6 [3GTS 23.251]. It enables a network operator to share their access network resources with other network operators who only need to deploy core network portions.

• Which parts of the core network need to be deployed depends on whether the MOCN or GWCN configuration for access network sharing has been selected.

• However, for the LTE/SAE-case, only the MOCN option makes sense and can be deployed.

[3GTS 23.882 (7.17.1)]

• Load sharing among access networks

• Auto configurationThe term “cells” includes femto cells which in turn may be also used as home base stations.

[3GTS 22.278 (Annex A)]


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3G 3rd Generation ... GWCN GateWay Core Network configuration


LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS)


MOCN Multi-Operator Core Network




UE User Equipment




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1.2.1 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Reasons of a System Architecture Evolution?

Question No 1: Please state the three most important characteristics of the envisaged system architecture compared to today's technology and architecture from your perspective.


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1


1.3 Seamless Mobility Options and their Characteristics

The objectives of this section are to illustrate the different variations of mobility and how they are implemented as part of the SAE.

Key points of this section are that:1. Which mobility options are supported by a UE is communicated through the UE mobility capabilities [3GTS 24.302 (8.2.1.1)].2. Inter-RAT mobility involves a considerable transition and interruption time, if there are no specific optimizations in place and if the UE cannot operate two radio links simultaneously.

Image Description

• The image depicts two overlapping rectangles, one red and the other one yellow.

• The red rectangle represents intra-RAT mobility in idle mode (without radio link) as well as in connected mode (radio link exists).

• Similarly, the yellow rectangle shall illustrate inter-RAT mobility in idle mode (without radio link) as well as in connected mode (radio link exists).


1


• The area in the middle of both rectangles (joined area) indicates the special case of optimized inter-RAT mobility procedures.

[3GTS 23.402 (4.1.3)]

1.3.1 Intra-RAT Mobility

• Intra-RAT mobility is always provided through technology-specific procedures.

• For instance, the GSM recommendations describe precisely the tasks of the mobile station and the network to enable the seamless mobility of the mobile station in idle and dedicated mode.

• Intra-RAT mobility is frequently called micro-mobility.




DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 PMIPv6 Proxy Mobile IPv6 (RFC 5213)



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network SAE System Architecture Evolution


UE User Equipment

HBM Host Based Mobility UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

NBM Network Based Mobility WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (IEEE 802.16)


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1.3.2 Inter-RAT Mobility (w/o Optimizations)

• Generically, inter-RAT mobility is frequently called macro-mobility. This process relates to the change of the radio access technology e.g. from WiFi to E-UTRAN.

• Typically, inter-RAT mobility makes use of IP-based mobility techniques like CMIP or PMIP. CMIP represents what is referred to as HBM in the image while PMIP relates to NBM.

Irrespective of whether HBM or NBM is applied, it is always the UE in case of inter-RAT mobility w/o optimizations that decides autonomously which RAT is used and whether a switch of the RAT is applicable. Therefore, the difference between NBM and HBM is that HBM requires additional protocols in the UE and NBM requires additional protocols in the EPC.

• If the user shall experience interruption-free services during a change of the RAT w/o optimizations, then the UE must support the operation of two simultaneous radio links: One with the former RAT and one with the new RAT. Only after the latter one has been successfully established, the old radio link may be released.

1.3.3 Inter-RAT Mobility (with Optimizations)

• Optimizations always relate to additional specifications that govern mobility related information exchange between the UE and the network.

• This information exchange typically only occurs while a radio link exists and relates to the transfer of measurement data and handover information.

• Therefore, optimized inter-RAT mobility can only be specified individually between two specific access network types (e.g. E-UTRAN <=> cdma2000 [3GTS 23.402 (9)] or GERAN <=> UTRAN).

• In our image we illustrated various different examples of optimized inter-RAT mobility options all of which can be found in the orange colored overlap between the yellow and the red rectangle.

• Optimizations lead to a considerable reduction of the transition and disruption times during inter-RAT changes and, very importantly, they avoid that the UE is required to operate two simultaneous radio links if these interruption times shall be avoided.

Question No 2: Please add the aforementioned consequences to the image at the two empty bullets.

SAE does not yet cover any mobility between GAN and E-UTRAN.

Question No 3: Which enhancements (if any) does SAE yield over Rel. 7 considering the aforementioned statements?


1




CMIP Client Mobile IP NBM Network Based Mobility


PMIP Proxy Mobile IP



GAN Generic Access Network SAE System Architecture Evolution

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network UE User Equipment

HBM Host Based Mobility UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) WiFi Wireless Fidelity (www.wi-fi.org)


1


1.4 Architecture Overview

1.4.1 Evolved Packet Core in Context

The objective of this section is to depict the EPC as new network cloud in context to the legacy and new network clouds.

Image Description

• The image is split into two parts: in the upper part, the image illustrates the legacy network parts and clouds which already exist with 3GPP Rel. 6 and 7.

• These network parts and clouds are illustrated in gray color.

• In the lower part, the new network clouds with Rel. 8 are depicted. They have been colorized to provide for a better distinction from the legacy network clouds.

• I-WLAN IP access from non-3GPP non-trusted access network may be achieved either directly (lower option) or through the packet-switched core network domain (upper option).

1.4.1.1 EPC vs. EPSThe two terms EPC and EPS can be distinguished as illustrated:

• The EPC represents the core component of the EPS.

• The EPS contains the EPC and the E-UTRAN (LTE) access network. However, it does not contain the other access networks.

[3GTS 23.401, 3GTS 23.402]


1


1.4.1.2 Non-3GPP Access Networks (trusted / non-trusted)

• In the legacy part (gray) the image illustrates the so called non-3GPP non trusted access networks which have been supported by 3GPP-recommendations since Rel. 6.

• New with Rel. 8 and SAE are the so called trusted non-3GPP access networks. Those trusted non-3GPP access networks comply to an EPC-operator's security requirements [3GTS 33.402 (4.2)] and are therefore granted direct access to the EPC. More details are provided in chapter 2.

Whether a non-3GPP access network is trusted or untrusted is ...

1. either pre-configured in the UE or ...

2. the UE learns the trust relationship during EAP-AKA authentication through that access network from its home-PLMN.

3. Yet another option is that the selected access network does not at all support EAP-AKA authentication in which case the UE determines that it camps on an untrusted non-3GPP access network.

The major difference for the UE with respect to the trust relationship of the selected non-3GPP access network is that in "untrusted case" the UE must establish an IPsec-tunnel through IKEv2 with an ePDG in the EPC [3GTS 33.402 (8)].The illustrated IPsec-tunnel through the non-3GPP trusted access network is only necessary in case the S2c-interface is used and it comes without interface name.


AKA Authentication and key agreement (3GTS 33.102)

IKEv2 Internet Key Exchange protocol / version 2 (RFC 4306)



EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol (RFC 3748)


EAP-AKA Extensible Authentication Protocol method for 3rd generation Authentication and Key Agreement (RFC 4187)

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network



EPS Evolved Packet Switched UE User Equipment




1


1.4.2 Zoom into the EPS

The objectives of this section are to:1.Illustrate the inner structure of the EPC and the E-UTRAN.2. Point out the "one-to-many" nature of the interconnections within the EPS.

Image Description

• The image depicts another time the two network clouds EPC and E-UTRAN and illustrates the physical interconnections (black lines) of the various network elements to the two IP-backbone networks.

[3GTS 23.401 (5.3.2)]


1


1.4.2.1 Functional Overview of Core Network Elements within the EPC

• The MME or Mobility Management Entity takes care of various control plane functions like mobility management and session management.

• The S-GW or Serving Gateway is the peer of the MME within the user plane and its functions evolve around packet data routing and forwarding.

• The PDN-Gateway has similar functions as the Serving Gateway but it remains the anchor during a packet data connection even if MME and S-GW. It is feasible to assume that GGSN's will typically be upgraded into PDN-GW's.

S-GW and PDN-GW may easily be integrated into a single box in order to save hardware and latency. A combination of MME and S-GW is probably less appealing because the MME is a very slim hardware box.

• The ePDG is required to interconnect non-trusted non-3GPP networks to the EPC. Its functions evolve around tunnel termination towards the UE and the non-trusted non-3GPP access network.



MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)

eNB Enhanced Node B PDN Packet Data Network


PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)

ePDG evolved Packet Data Gateway (3GTS 23.402)


EPS Evolved Packet Switched S-GW Serving Gateway (3GTS 23.401)

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node UE User Equipment

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


1


1.4.3 Network Elements and their Functions within the EPC

1.4.3.1 Mobility Management Entity (MME)

1.4.3.1.1 Characteristics

The objective of this section is to illustrate the most important characteristics of the MME.

Image Description

• The MME is a network element that takes care of control plane tasks.

• The MME may physically be part of an SGSN or S-GW or it may be setup as a stand-alone network element.

• MME's are typically organized in pool areas (S1Flex) to provide for load balancing among the MME's which belong to the same pool. All eNodeB's which belong the related E-UTRAN pool areas shall have access to the MME's belonging to this MME-pool area(s).

[3GTS 23.002 (4.1.4.1), 3GTS 23.401 (4.4.2)]

1.4.3.1.2 Identification

• Each MME is identified by using an MME Group ID (MMEGI), and an MME Code (MMEC). Both parameters together form the MMEI [3GTS 23003 (19.4.2.4)].


1





MMEC MME Code


MMEGI MME Group Identity


MMEI MME Identity

GW Gateway SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

ID Identity UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network



1


1.4.3.1.3 Interfaces & Protocols

The objectives of this section are to illustrate the MME, its interfaces towards other network elements and the protocol stacks used on these interfaces.

Image Description

• The green color used for the interfaces indicates the control plane relationship of a protocol or an interface.

[3GTS 23.401 (5.1)]


1




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)


MSC Mobile Services Switching Center

EIR Equipment Identity Register MSC-S MSC-Server

EMM EPS Mobility Management (3GTS 24.301)

NAS Non-Access-Stratum

eNB Enhanced Node B S1-AP S1 Application Part


SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol (RFC 2960)

ESM EPS Session Management (3GTS 24.301)

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol (3GTS 29.060)

TCP Transmission Control Protocol

GTP-C GTP Control Plane UDP User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768)

GW Gateway UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

HSS Home Subscriber Server [3GTS 23.002]. HSS replaces the HLR with 3GPP Rel. 5


1


1.4.3.1.4 Tasks & Functions of the MME

1.4.3.1.4.1 NAS-Signaling towards the UE

The objective of this section is to illustrate the MME as peer of the eNodeB and the UE for different signaling tasks.

The MME and the UE use the physical resources of the LTE-Uu-interface and the S1-interface to exchange NAS-signaling [3GTS 24.301] which relates to EMM and ESM.

1.4.3.1.4.2 S1-Signaling towards the eNodeB

• MME and eNodeB use the S1-AP-protocol for various tasks as stated in the image.

[3GTS 36.413]


1









S1-AP S1 Application Part

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) UE User Equipment


1


1.4.3.1.4.3 S-GW and P-GW Selection

The objective of this section is to illustrate the responsibility of the different network elements to select specific entities inside their pools to become responsible for a certain UE.

Image Description

• Is is the eNodeB that selects the MME out of an MME-pool.

• The selection of the S-GW is done based on O&M-constraints.

Nevertheless, if the possibility is there to select an S-GW which is integrated with the selected P-GW, the MME shall prefer this choice.

• The selection of the P-GW is either predefined through a decision of the HSS of the registering UE or the MME may apply route optimizing decisions, e.g. by selecting a local P-GW in the V-PLMN in case of roaming.

The aforementioned route optimization is frequently called local breakout [3GTS 23.882 (7.2)]

[3GTS 23.401 (4.3.8)]


1


1.4.3.1.4.4 Other Selection Functions

• In addition to the aforementioned selection functions the MME is also responsible to select the new MME in case of a handover with MME-change.

• Besides, the MME will select the SGSN in case of inter-RAT handovers to GSM or UMTS, if the packet-switched core network in the 2G/3G-domain supports the IuFlex-feature.








UE User Equipment


UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

O&M Operation and Maintenance V-PLMN Visited PLMN



1


1.4.3.1.4.4 Local Breakout

The objective of this section is to explain the term "local breakout".

Key point of this section is to bear in mind that local breakout basically relates to "route optimization" in case of roaming.

It is obvious that local breakout will save latency and bandwidth, because the blue link to the server is essentially shorter than the red link.

1.4.3.1.4.5 IMS and Local Breakout

• Local breakout is particularly interesting in case of roaming and IMS-access.

• In that case, it may be desirable to allow the user data traffic to "breakout" locally in the V-PLMN whereas the SIP-signaling must in any case be routed to the IMS in the H-PLMN (according to the IMS-rules).

[3GTR 23.882 (7.2)]


1




3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report IMS Internet Protocol Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (Rel. 5 onwards)


IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791)



H-PLMN Home PLMN SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)



V-PLMN Visited PLMN


1


1.4.3.2 Serving Gateway (S-GW)


The objective of this section is to illustrate the most important characteristics of the S-GW.

[23.002 (4.1.4.2.1), 23.401 (4.4.3.3)]

Image Description

• The S-GW represents the user plane side of the MME

• Although the S-GW is logically a separate network element from the PDN-GW , the two network elements may physically be integrated into a single network element (e.g. to save on latency).

• S-GW's are typically organized into S-GW pools to provide for load balancing among the S-GW's which belong to the same service area.

• All eNodeB's which belong the related E-UTRAN pool areas shall have access to the S-GW's belonging to this S-GW service area.


• An S-GW has no EPS-specific identifiers and is identified by means of IP-addresses and URL's.


1





S-GW Serving Gateway (3GTS 23.401)

EPS Evolved Packet Switched SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node


URL Uniform Resource Locator (RFC 1738)

PDN Packet Data Network UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


1



The objectives of this section are to illustrate the S-GW, its interfaces towards other network elements and the protocol stacks used on these interfaces.

Image Description

• The green color of an interface indicates the control plane relationship of a protocol or an interface. Likewise, orange color indicates user plane relationship.

Note that on S5 and S8 interface it is an operator choice to implement either GTP or PMIPv6 together with GRE. Irrespective of this choice, the S-GW must support GTP on various other interfaces like for example towards MME, eNodeB or RNC.

[3GTS 23.401 (5.1), 23.402 (5.1)]


1




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)






GRE Generic Routing Encapsulation (RFC 2784)

PMIPv6 Proxy Mobile IPv6


RNC Radio Network Controller

GTP-C GTP Control Plane S-GW Serving Gateway (3GTS 23.401)

GTP-U GTP User Plane SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol (RFC 2960)

H-PLMN Home PLMN SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

HSGW HRPD Serving Gateway (cdma2000 term)


IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UDP User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768)



1


1.4.3.2.4 Tasks & Functions of the S-GW

The objective of this section is to illustrate the tasks and functions of the S-GW.

1.4.3.2.4.1 Packet Routing / Relaying

1.4.3.2.4.2 Legal Interception

1.4.3.2.4.3 QCI-based Packet TaggingWhen the S-GW receives IP-packets in uplink or downlink direction it will check the related QCI-value based on the relationship of the packet to a certain service data flow and handle the packet accordingly, e.g. relay it to the responsible GTP-tunnel or GRE-tunnel.

1.4.3.2.4.4 Accounting

[3GTS 23.401 (4.4.3.2), 23.402 (4.3.3.2)]


1







QCI QoS Class Identifier




1


1.4.3.3 PDN Gateway (P-GW or PDN-GW)


The objective of this section is to illustrate the most important characteristics of the P-GW.

Image Description

• The home agent function is only applicable if the UE accesses the P-GW through one of the interfaces S2a, S2b or S2c.


• A P-GW is identified by means of IP-addresses and URL's.

• In addition and by means of specific DNS-resolution, a P-GW is logically identified through APN's which refer to a specific service (PDN-access) that a given P-GW can provide (see section 2.1.2.1.1).

[23.002 (4.1.4.2.2), 23.401 (4.3.3.3), 23402 (4.4.3.3)]


1




APN Access Point Name (Reference to a GGSN)

P-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)

DNS Domain Name System PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UE User Equipment



1



The objectives of this section are to illustrate the P-GW, its interfaces towards other network elements and the protocol stacks used on these interfaces.

Image Description

• The image reuses the color codes from chapter 2. The green color indicates the control plane relationship of a protocol or an interface. Likewise, orange color indicates user plane relationship.

• The ESP-tunnel over S2c has been established using EAP-AKA over IKEv2.

• The protocol layer “Application” comprises among others http, SIP, RTP (with voice or video).

[3GTS 23.401 (5.1), 23.402 (5.1)]DSMIPv6


1





MIPv4 Mobile IP Version 4

DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol NAT Network Address Translation (RFC 1631)

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 P-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)





ESP Encapsulating Security Payload (RFC 4303)

PMIPv6 Proxy Mobile IPv6 (RFC 5213)


RTP Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC 3550, RFC 3551)



GTP-C GTP Control Plane SGi Reference Point in LTE

GTP-U GTP User Plane SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)



IMS Internet Protocol Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (Rel. 5 onwards)

UDP User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768)

IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) V-PLMN Visited PLMN


1


1.4.3.3.4 Tasks & Functions of the P-GW

The objective of this section is to present the tasks and functions of the P-GW.

1.4.3.3.4.1 UE IP Address Allocation

1.4.3.3.4.2 QCI-based Packet Tagging

• The P-GW performs this task as part of the classification and according to the installed QoS-policy.

• Based on the installed DL-TFT, the QCI is determined and traffic handling rules are determined.

1.4.3.3.4.3 Policy Enforcement

• Traffic shaping: Delay data packet transmission until resources become available.

• Traffic policing: Discard packet if no resources to transmit them are available.


1



Question No 4: Why does the P-GW perform legal interception and the S-GW and, as you will see, the ePDG, too?

1.4.3.3.4.5 Home Agent Function

[3GTS 23.401 (4.4.3.3), 23.402 (4.3.3.3)]





DL Downlink QCI QoS Class Identifier

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 QoS Quality of Service

GW Gateway S-GW Serving Gateway (3GTS 23.401)

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) TFT Traffic Flow Template

LMA Local Mobility Anchor (RFC 5213) UE User Equipment



1


1.4.3.4 enhanced Packet Data Gateway (ePDG)


The objective of this section is to illustrate the most important characteristics of the ePDG.

Image Description

• The ePDG is an enhanced PDG as defined in Release 6. Please recall that a PDG usually was physically broken down into two parts: one inside the GGSN and one inside the TTG [3GTS 23.234].

• The selection of an ePDG through the UE occurs either through static configuration or dynamically [3GTS 23.402 (4.5.4)].


• An ePDG has no EPS-specific identifiers and is identified by means of IP-addresses and URL's.

[3GTS 23.402 (4.3.4)]


1





PDG Packet Data Gateway

EPS Evolved Packet Switched TTG Tunnel Termination Gateway

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node UE User Equipment

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) URL Uniform Resource Locator (RFC 1738)

MAG Mobile Access Gateway (RFC 5213)


1



The objectives of this section are to illustrate the ePDG, its interfaces towards other network elements and the protocol stacks used on these interfaces.

Image Description

• The image reuses the color codes from chapter 2. The green color indicates the control plane relationship of a protocol or an interface. Likewise, orange color indicates user plane relationship. The black lines represent physical links which are used to piggyback the SWu-interface.

• The ESP-tunnel over S2c has been established using EAP-AKA over IKEv2.

• The Gxb-interface as depicted in the image is currently not specified.

[3GTS 23.401 (5.1), 23.402 (5.1)]


1








DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791)












1


1.4.3.4.4 Tasks & Functions of the ePDG

The objective of this section is to present the tasks and functions of the ePDG.

1.4.3.4.4.1 ESP-Tunnel Mgmt towards UE'sThe allocated IP-address is just relayed by the ePDG. It stems from the P-GW.

1.4.3.4.4.2 QoS-specific Packet Tagging in UL-Direction


1.4.3.4.4.4 MAG-Function for PMIPv6

[3GTS 23.402 (4.3.4)]


1










GW Gateway UE User Equipment

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UL Uplink



1


1.4.3.5 Protocol Stack Architecture on the UE-Side

The objective of this section is to illustrate the protocol stack architecture of the UE with SAE.

Key point of this section is that the UE becomes merely an IP-bearer provider which shall pick the optimum modem under all circumstances.


1



CC Call Control PHY Physical Layer

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)


RLC Radio Link Control


RR Radio Resource Management



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network RTP Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC 3550, RFC 3551)

HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol (RFC 2616)



SDP Session Description Protocol (RFC 2327, RFC 3266, RFC 3264)


SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)

IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (RFC 2821)

IPv6 Internet Protocol (version 6) SRTP Secure RTP (RFC 3711)

MAC Medium Access Control TCP Transmission Control Protocol

MIPv4 Mobile IP Version 4 UDP User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768)

MM Mobility Management UE User Equipment

MSRP Message Session Relay Protocol (draft-ietf-simple-message-sessions-XX)


PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol


1


1.4.4 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Interworking within the EPS-Architecture

The objective of this section is to illustrate how E-UTRAN and EPC inter-operate during Internet access and during inter-eNodeB handover.

• Let us assume that the illustrated UE establishes a connection to E-UTRAN and the EPC at time T1.

• The connection is established towards eNodeB No1 which selects MME No2 for that session.

• The MME No2 selects the Serving Gateway No 2 for the user plane.

• Serving Gateway No2 establishes a link towards PDN-Gateway No 2.

• PDN-Gateway No 2 uses the firewall at the edge of the PLMN to relay user data packets to the example http-server on the external IP-network.

Question No 5: Please use orange and green pens to add the EPS-specific interfaces and their names (e.g. S5) to the image. Draw the green and orange lines along the black lines to relate physical links to logical interfaces.


1


Question No 6: Let us assume that the UE changes the serving eNodeB at time T2 from eNodeB No1 to eNodeB No2. In our example, the related handover procedure shall be an X2-based handover w/o Serving-Gateway relocation [3GTS 23.401 (5.5.1.1.2)]. Please add the related X2-interface to the image using again the orange and green pens.

Question No 7: In the aforementioned case there was no Serving Gateway relocation. What is your opinion under which circumstances will MME and/or Serving Gateway be changed?





eNB Enhanced Node B MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)


PDN Packet Data Network






1


Lessons Learned / Conclusions


1


Chapter 2:

Operations Overview


• How does the network access and attachment work for the different RAT's?

• How does the UE prioritize different available access networks and access network types?

• How can a UE which is attached to the EPC, establish a voice call?

• How does inter-RAT mobility work while the UE is attached to the EPC?

• What are the most important differences between host and network based mobility in that respect?

Operations Overview

2


2.1 Network Access to the EPC in case of 3GPP-RAT's

2.1.1 E-UTRAN

2.1.1.1 Related Network Architecture

The objective of this section is to indicate the network infrastructure which is involved when a UE registered to the EPC through E-UTRAN.

Question No 8: Please draw a line around all network parts which together form the EPS.

2.1.1.2 Related Network Elements

• The PCRF or Policy Control and Charging Rules Function replaces and combines the PDF and the CRF which were used prior to Release 7. In that respect, the PCRF takes care of QoS-authorization and charging rules enforcement.

• The HSS is an enhanced HLR which does not only store all subscriber data records but which can also talk IP and DIAMETER.


2








CRF Charging Rules Function MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)

DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function (3GTS 23.203)


PDF Policy Decision Function (Part of the IP Multimedia Subsystem)



EPS Evolved Packet Switched PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

HLR Home Location Register QoS Quality of Service


UE User Equipment

SGi Reference Point in LTE UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

Operations Overview

2


2.1.1.3 Signaling and Important State Changes (EMM, ECM, ESM)

The objective of this section is to illustrate on top level how a UE attaches to the EPC through E-UTRAN, obtains an IP-address and sets up the so called "default EPS-bearer".

Image Description

• The image depicts the communication between UE and MME which is happening during the initial attachment and default EPS-bearer establishment.

• In that respect, the image uses the orange background color to indicate that the RRC- and S1-bearers are required for the related EMM-message exchange.

• On the right and left hand side, the image also depicts in half-transparent way the related state changes of ECM, EMM and ESM.

Typically, during attachment the UE also obtains an IP-address from the EPC or rather, to be more precise, from the PDN-GW which is behind the MME. Therefore, the ESM-state change is piggybacked on top of the EMM-procedure attachment.

The ESM-messages are embedded into the related EMM-messages.

[3GTS 23.401 (5.3.2), 3GTS 24.301 (5.5.1)]


2








ECM EPS Connection Management (3GTS 24.301)




eNB Enhanced Node B PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)



EPS Evolved Packet Switched S1-AP S1 Application Part


UE User Equipment



Operations Overview

2


2.1.2 GERAN / UTRAN


The objective of this section is to illustrate the network architecture which is applied if a UE attaches to the EPC through GERAN or UTRAN.

2.1.2.1.1 Selection of EPC vs. GGSN

• The SGSN will base its decision of whether to select a route to the GGSN or to the EPC (and consequently to a PDN-GW) on the APN which it receives from the HSS and the UE.

Note that with Rel. 8 and the introduction of the EPC, a new format for the APN-operator identifier has been defined: "apn.epc.mnc<MNC>.mcc<MCC>.3gppnetwork.org" [3GTS 23.060 (19.4.2.2.3)]

• This operator identifier is typically constructed by the SGSN autonomously or received from the HSS together with the APN-network identifier. The UE usually only provides the APN-network identifier.


2


The optional S12-interface (user plane only) is used only if the direct tunnel functionality [3GTS 23.060 (15.6)] is supported by the SGSN. in this case, there is a direct data link established between RNC and Serving Gateway. Note that this feature already existed with Rel. 7.

Question No 9: Based on which criteria does the SGSN select the way to the EPC rather than to the GGSN?



MNC Mobile Network Code



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network PDN Packet Data Network

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)





MCC Mobile Country Code [ITU-T E.212] UE User Equipment



Operations Overview

2


2.1.2.2 Signaling Procedures (GMM/PMM, SM)

The objective of this section is to illustrate on top level how a UE attaches to the EPC through GERAN or UTRAN, using the legacy packet-switched core network.

The SGSN needs to perform a DNS-query to resolve the APN to either the GGSN or to the EPC.

In case of PMIP, the related messages are PMIPv6: Proxy Binding Update and Proxy Binding Ack [3GTS 23.402 (5.2)]

[3GTS 23.060 (6.5), (9.2.2.1A)]

The direct tunnel is established to reduce the latency within the user plane. This direct tunnel uses the S12-interface but, as illustrated, it is optional.


2








DNS Domain Name System PDP Packet Data Protocol



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network PMIPv6 Proxy Mobile IPv6 (RFC 5213)

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node PMM Packet Mobility Management

GMM GPRS Mobility Management RNC Radio Network Controller



GW Gateway SM Session Management (3GTS 23.060, 3GTS 24.008)


UE User Equipment

MAP Mobile Application Part (3GTS 29.002)


Operations Overview

2


2.1.1.4 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Relate E-UTRAN Procedures to GERAN / UTRAN Procedures

The objective of this section is to compare and relate the just described E-UTRAN procedures to the GERAN/UTRAN procedures.

Question No 10: Please fill in the missing procedures and correspondence arrows into the image.


2





RAN Radio Access Network

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network RRC Radio Resource Control

GMM GPRS Mobility Management SM Session Management (3GTS 23.060, 3GTS 24.008)

PDP Packet Data Protocol UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

PMM Packet Mobility Management

Operations Overview

2


2.2 Network Access in case of Non-3GPP RAT's

2.2.1 Network Discovery and Selection

2.2.1.1 Problem Description

The objective of this section is to illustrate that the UE may encounter long delays or sub-optimum service during network selection because of the variety of access networks available


2




AP Access Point (IEEE 802.11, 802.16) RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

BS Base Station (IEEE 802.16) UE User Equipment

BTS Base Transceiver Station UTRA UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access



eNB Enhanced Node B WiFi Wireless Fidelity (www.wi-fi.org)



Operations Overview

2


2.2.1.2 Interworking with the ANDSF

The objective of this section is to provide an overview as to how the UE interacts with the ANDSF.

Key point of this section is that 3GPP uses OMA-defined protocols for the solicited transfer of supported access network information to the UE.

The location of the UE can be conveyed most simply as CI or through GPS / A-GPS.

The trust relationship between an access network and the H-PLMN network operator is not conveyed to the UE by the ANDSF.

[3GTS 22.278 (7.16), 3GTS 23.402 (4.8), 3GTS 24.302 (6.8)]


2





H-PLMN Home PLMN


OMA Open Mobile Alliance (http://www.openmobilealliance.org/)



CI Cell Identity UE User Equipment

GPS Global Positioning System

Operations Overview

2


2.2.1.3 Distinction Trusted vs. Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's

The objective of this section is to illustrate how the UE distinguishes between trusted and non-trusted non-3GPP radio access networks.

Key point of this section is that a trusted non-3GPP access network must use EAP-AKA when authenticating the UE.

The UE shall fall back to non-trusted operation if the trust relationship between the access network and the H-PLMN network operator cannot be determined [3GTS 24.302 (6.2.4)].

Question No 11: Please add to the image the distinguishing criteria between trusted and non-trusted non-3GPP access networks.


2


The trust relationship of an access network is ultimately decided upon by the H-PLMN network operator.The UE either possesses pre-configured trust relationship information or the trust relationship between access network and H-PLMN is conveyed to the UE during the EAP-AKA-based access authentication.

[3GTS 24.302 (4.1), (6.2)]




H-PLMN Home PLMN










UE User Equipment

Operations Overview

2


2.2.2 Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's


The objective of this section is to indicate the network infrastructure which is involved when a UE registers to the EPC through a trusted non-3GPP access network.

The S101- and S103-interfaces are only applicable if the trusted non-3GPP access network is a cdma2000 network. In that case, these two interfaces are used for handover optimization.

[3GTS 23.402 (6)]


2













UE User Equipment

Operations Overview

2


2.2.2.2 Signaling Procedures if EAP and PMIPv6 are used

The objective of this section is to illustrate the network access and EPC-attachment procedure, if the UE selected a trusted non-3GPP access network and the trusted access network uses IPv6 internally and PMIPv6 for the communication towards EPC.

Key point of this section is that the presented procedure requires the trusted non-3GPP access network to be IPv6 and PMIPv6-aware. It will not work, if the access network only supports IPv4.

IPv6 stateless auto configuration is used to obtain IPv6 address

P-GW acts as LMA with respect to PMIPv6Some access router inside the trusted non-3GPP access network acts as MAG

The illustrated procedure is referred to as Network Based Mobility.

[3GTS 23.402 (6.2.1)]


2





LMA Local Mobility Anchor (RFC 5213)

DIA Diameter Protocol (RFC 3588, RFC 3589)








ICMPv6 Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6 (RFC 4443)


IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) UE User Equipment

IPv6 Internet Protocol (version 6)

Operations Overview

2


2.2.2.3 Signaling Procedures if MIPv4 is used

The objective of this section is to illustrate the network access and EPC-attachment procedure, if the UE selected a trusted non-3GPP access network and the trusted access network uses IPv4 internally and supports client MIPv4.

Question No 12: How does a UE determine whether the selected access network supports IPv4 or IPv6 and how does it determine whether the access network supports MIPv4?

The illustrated procedure is referred to as HBM (Host Based Mobility).

P-GW acts as home agent with respect to MIPv4.Some access router inside the trusted non-3GPP access network acts as foreign agent.

[3GTS 23.402 (6.2.3)]


2


Question No 13: Which problem with respect to mobility may occur in the presented case?





CoA Care of Address (MIP) ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol







FA Foreign Agent (Mobile IP / RFC 3344) P-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)

HBM Host Based Mobility UE User Equipment

HoA Home Address

Operations Overview

2


2.2.3 Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT's


The objective of this section is to indicate the network infrastructure which is involved when a UE registers to the EPC through a non-trusted non-3GPP access network.

Key point of this section is that the SWu-interface needs to be established through IKEv2 and it represents an IPsec-tunnel.

QoS may be critical in the depicted architecture, because it is difficult and sometimes even impossible to invoke certain bearer attributes like delay times or bandwidth in a non-trusted non-3GPP access network.

[3GTS 23.402 (7)]


2















UE User Equipment

Operations Overview

2


2.2.3.2 Signaling Procedures if IKEv2 and PMIPv6 are used

The objective of this section is to illustrate the network access and EPC-attachment procedure, if the UE selected a non-trusted non-3GPP access network and the IP-mobility shall be based on NBM with PMIPv6.

The procedure used to obtain the outer IP-address depends on the respective access network and IP-version. If it is WiFi and IPv4, then typically UE-initiated DHCP is used.

[3GTS 23.402 (7.2)]

The depicted non-trusted access is a good fallback option for a UE that encounters a trusted Non-3GPP access network which is IPv4 but does not support MIPv4 and the UE does not support DSMIPv6. In such case, there would be no possibility for the UE to attach to this Non-3GPP RAT.


2






DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (RFC 2131)



NBM Network Based Mobility

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)






UE User Equipment


WiFi Wireless Fidelity (www.wi-fi.org)


Operations Overview

2


2.2.3.3 Signaling Procedures if IKEv2 and DSMIPv6 are used

The objective of this section is to illustrate the network access and EPC-attachment procedure, if the UE selected a non-trusted non-3GPP access network and the IP-mobility shall be based on HBM with DSMIPv6.

Key point of this section is that in the presented case, the UE and the PDN-Gateway apply the S2c-interface.

Did you recognize that there are two ESP-tunnels established in this case? One is illustrated “light blue” and the other one which resides in this first ESP-tunnel between the UE and the ePDG is illustrated also in blue. This tunneling of “IP in IP in IP” causes quite some overhead and makes DSMIPv6 less appealing.

[3GTS 23.402 (7.3)]


2





HBM Host Based Mobility


HoA Home Address

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 HSS Home Subscriber Server [3GTS 23.002]. HSS replaces the HLR with 3GPP Rel. 5






UE User Equipment

Operations Overview

2


2.3 Voice Call Establishment

2.3.1 IMS-based


The objective of this section is to illustrate the network architecture which is used to establish voice calls through the EPS if the IMS is used for call control functions.


2




BGCF Breakout Gateway Control Function P-CSCF Proxy Call Session Control Function (SIP)





PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

EPS Evolved Packet Switched S-CSCF Serving Call Session Control Function (SIP)


SGi Reference Point in LTE

MGCF Media Gateway Control Function UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

MGW Media Gateway VoIP Voice over IP

Operations Overview

2


2.3.1.2 Signaling Procedure (SIP, SDP, DIAMETER)

The objective of this section is to provide an overview of the signaling procedure which is used to establish a voice call through EPS and IMS.

Note that the bearer establishment occurs network initiated rather than UE-initiated. The dedicated EPS-bearer is identified through specific QoS-parametrization and uplink and downlink TFT's for packet classification


2




ACM Address Complete Message (ISUP-message type)

ISUP ISDN User Part (ITU-T Q.761 - Q.765)

ANM Answer Message (ISUP-message type)

PCM Pulse Code Modulation



DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network





EPS Evolved Packet Switched SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)


TFT Traffic Flow Template

IAM Initial Address Message (ISUP ISDN User Part)

UE User Equipment




Operations Overview

2


2.3.2 Circuit-switched Fallback


The objective of this section is to illustrate the network architecture which is used to establish voice calls, if circuit-switched fallback from the EPC to 2G/3G RAT and circuit-switched core network shall be applied.

Key points of this section are:1. CS-fallback requires the MME to update the VLR in the circuit-switched domain about the UE's location. Accordingly, the MME must administrate a coverage mapping function between E-UTRAN and GERAN/UTRAN. 2. After the call, the UE will use standard cell re-selection to return to E-UTRAN.

• In case of circuit-switched fallback, a UE which is both LTE and 2G/3G-capable, shall be attached to the EPC and to the 2G/3G-access and core networks.

• In that respect, the SGs-interface has a very important meaning: It allows the EPC (MME) and the VLR (as part of the MSC-S) to coordinate the circuit-switched call establishment.

• In case of mobile terminating calls, the MSC-S will relay the paging towards the MME using the SGs-interface.


2


• The color codes indicate that also the packet-switched traffic has to go through GERAN / UTRAN while circuit-switched fallback applies. This is achieved through a packet-switched handover or cell change prior to the call establishment.

[3GTS 23.272]




MSC-S MSC-Server

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network RAT Radio Access Technology (e.g. GERAN, UTRAN, ...)

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) UE User Equipment



MSC Mobile Services Switching Center VLR Visitor Location Register

Operations Overview

2


2.3.2.2 Signaling Procedure for MOC

The objective of this section is to illustrate the signaling procedure and interworking which is used when a mobile originating voice call is established through circuit-switched fallback.

Key point of this section is that circuit-switched fallback basically works through a handover from E-UTRAN to GERAN or UTRAN to which the UE has also attached previously.

Scenario has been illustrated for GERAN (RR and DTAP) and UTRAN (RRC and RANAP).


2




CS Circuit Switched NACC Network Assisted Cell Change (3GTS 44.060)

DTAP Direct Transfer Application Part PS Packet Switched


RANAP Radio Access Network Application Part (3GTS 25.413)



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network RR Radio Resource Management



HO Handover S1-AP S1 Application Part



MOC Mobile Originating Call UE User Equipment

MSC Mobile Services Switching Center UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

MSC-S MSC-Server

Operations Overview

2


2.3.2.3 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Voice Call Establishment

The objective of this section is to re-capture some important details stemming from the previous sections.

Question No 14: Please mark whether the aforementioned statements are true or false.


2




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)


UE User Equipment

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


Operations Overview

2


2.4 Macro Mobility / Inter-RAT Roaming

2.4.1 Handover E-UTRAN to Trusted Non-3GPP RAT


The objective of this section is to illustrate the involved network architecture, if a UE performs a handover from E-UTRAN to trusted non-3GPP RAT.

Even if the optimization according to [3GTS 23.402 (9)] is used, the procedure is still UE-controlled because the UE “pre-registers” [3GTS 23.402 (9.3.1)] with the cdma200 access network while it is still connected to E-UTRAN.


2









UE User Equipment



Operations Overview

2


2.4.1.2 Signaling Procedure (NBM / PMIPv6 on S2a)

The objective of this section is to illustrate the signaling procedure if a UE switches from E-UTRAN to a trusted non-3GPP radio access network and the IP-mobility shall be based on NBM.

Key point of this section is that the indicated procedure does not include any optimization according to [3GTS 23.402 (9)].

Upon reception of uplink data on the new path, the P-GW may switch to the new radio connection and start the release of the non longer used radio resources towards and within the E-UTRAN.

Please note that up to this point, the UE needs to operate E-UTRAN and non-trusted non-3GPP radio resources simultaneously.

[3GTS 23.402 (8)]


2
















GTP-C GTP Control Plane S1-AP S1 Application Part

GTP-U GTP User Plane UE User Equipment




Operations Overview

2


2.4.2 Handover E-UTRAN to Non-Trusted Non-3GPP RAT


The objective of this section is to illustrate the involved network architecture, if a UE performs a handover from E-UTRAN to trusted non-3GPP RAT.


2











UE User Equipment

GW Gateway UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


Operations Overview

2


2.4.1.2 Signaling Procedure (NBM / PMIPv6 on S2b)

The objective of this section is to illustrate the signaling procedure if a UE switches from E-UTRAN to a non-trusted non-3GPP radio access network and the IP-mobility shall be based on NBM.

[3GTS 23.402 (8.2.3)]


2


















GTP-C GTP Control Plane UE User Equipment

GTP-U GTP User Plane UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


Operations Overview

2


2.4.1.3 Comprehension Check & Exercise:Inter-RAT Mobility

The objective of this section is to re-capture some important details related to the illustrated inter-RAT mobility procedures.

Question No 15: Please mark whether the aforementioned statements are true or false.


2






IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UE User Equipment


Operations Overview

2




2


Chapter 3:

Architectural Details of the EPS


• What are tracking areas and what is their relationship to location areas and routing areas?

• Which new identifiers are used within the evolved core network environment to identify users?

• How does the QoS-architecture look like in the evolved network?

• What is S1-Flex and how does it operate?


3


3.0 Comprehension Test & Repetition:Network Interfaces and Protocols

The objective of this section is to recapture the various interface names and the protocols used on these interfaces with the focus of this section being put on 3PP-specific interfaces.

Question No 16: Please add the interface names (e.g S5 between S-GW and PDN-GW) and the most important protocol used on these interfaces.


3




CS Circuit Switched MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)


MSC-S MSC-Server

eNB Enhanced Node B PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function (3GTS 23.203)



GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network PS Packet Switched





IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


3


3.0 Comprehension Test & Repetition:Network Interfaces and Protocols (continued)

The objective of this section is to recapture the various interface names and the protocols used on these interfaces with the focus of this section being put on non-3PP-specific access networks.

Question No 17: Please add the interface names (e.g SGi between PDN-GW and IMS) and the most important protocol used on these interfaces.


3





OCS Online Charging System


OFCS Offline Charging System







3


3.0 Comprehension Test & Repetition:Network Interfaces and Protocols (continued)

The objective of this section is to recapture the various interface names and the protocols used on these interfaces with the focus of this section being put on on roaming issues.

Question No 18: Please add the interface names (e.g SGi between PDN-GW and IMS) and the most important protocol used on these interfaces.


3








H-PLMN Home PLMN PDN-GW Packet Data Network Gateway (part of EPC)



IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) V-PLMN Visited PLMN


3


3.1 Network Layout and Important Identifiers

3.1.1 Organization of the E-UTRAN

The objective of this section is to illustrate the relationship between E-UTRAN and EPC and to introduce some important identifiers.

The organization of the E-UTRAN into pool areas and the corresponding assignment of the MME's into MME-pools reproduces the IuFlex-feature from Rel. 5 and enables load sharing and redundant operation within the EPS.

eNodeB's may be sectorized and may contain multiple cells


3


3.1.1.1 Tracking AreasTracking areas may contain one or more cells and they are comparable to location areas (2G) and routing areas (3G).

In the image, tracking areas are identified by different fill colors of the cell coverage areas while E-UTRAN pool areas are identified by different line colors of these cell coverage areas.

Question No 19: Please add the TAI-format into the graphics (top left part).





eNB Enhanced Node B MMEI Mobility Management Entity Identity (3GTS 23.003)


TAI Tracking Area Identity (3GTS 24.301)

EPS Evolved Packet Switched UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network


3


3.1.1.1.1 TAI and TAI-list

Tracking areas never overlap [3GTR 24.801 (5.1.1.1)] but the MME may indicate to the UE a whole list of TAI's during attachment: As long as the UE remains within the coverage area of these tracking areas, no regular tracking area update scenario is performed.

TAI: [3GTS 23.003 (19.4.2.3)]

Please remember there is always a give-and-take between the load resulting from location updates (tracking area udates in this case) on one hand and pagings on the other hand. The signaling load of paging will obviously increase, the larger the geographic area becomes in which the UE can roam without updating the network about its location. Vice versa, the paging load will be very small, if each cell forms its individual tracking area. In such case, the signaling load caused by updates will be quite high, though.

3.1.1.2 E-UTRAN Pool AreasAn E-UTRAN pool area comprises all the eNodeB's which have access to the MME's which belong to the same MME-pool. As illustrated, E-UTRAN pool areas may overlap (the green tracking area) and the eNodeB's within the green tracking area may select MME's out of both indicated tracking areas.

It is the eNodeB that selects the MME within a pool of MME's to serve a certain UE.

3.1.2 MME Pool's and MMEIThe MME Group ID identifies a certain MME-pool.

Question No 20: Please add the missing text to the textbox in the lower right part of the graphics: Which parameter is the same for all MME's within an MME-pool?

MME's may be part of more than one MME-pool.

The identification of an MME is given by the MMEI which in turn is not unique, because a given MME may be part of more than one MME-pool.

Question No 21: Please add the format of the MMEI to the textbox in the lower left part of the graphics.

[3GTS 23.002 (3.15a, 3.16)]


3




3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report MMEI Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.003)


TAI Tracking Area Identity (3GTS 24.301)


UE User Equipment



3


3.1.1.3 S-GW Service Areas

The objectives of this section are to introduce the second part of the S1Flex-feature which are the S-GW service areas and their relationship to the MME-pools and E-UTRAN pool areas.

Question No 22: Please use your color pens to indicate how S-GW's can be related to E-UTRAN-pool areas and MME-pools. You are welcome to depict more than one option (use the empty page on the right side if necessary).

[3GTS 23.401 (3.1)]


3








3


3.1.3 Identifiers of the UE

3.1.3.1 M-TMSI and S-TMSI

The objective of this section is to introduce the new M-TMSI and S-TMSI and to illustrate their relationship to the legacy TMSI-types.

Key point of this section is that no TMSI is a permanent identifier of a UE. Permanent UE-identifiers are the IMSI and the IMEI.

Note the NRI which is used to indicate in Rel. 5, 6 and 7 which SGSN or VLR allocated this TMSI / P-TMSI. The NRI therefore uniquely identifies an SGSN or VLR within a pool of SGSN's or VLR's.

Question No 23: Considering the previous sentence: Why is there no NRI within an M-TMSI?

[3GTS 23.003 (2.4, 2.8)]


3


• The M-TMSI is allocated and administered by the MME. In that respect, the MME must be able to relate an allocated M-TMSI to the IMSI of a subscriber.

• The S-TMSI is used for paging purposes and is constructed by the paging MME from the M-TMSI of the UE plus the MME-code of that MME.

Question No 24: May an MME use different MME-codes?

• The M-TMSI (or any other TMSI) cannot act as permanent UE-identifier. This function prevails with the IMSI (smart card Id) and the IMEI (device Id).

• Certificates may not be used as permanent UE-identifiers.



IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

P-TMSI Packet TMSI

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

LSB Least Significant Bit SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

M-TMSI MME - Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity


UE User Equipment

MSB Most Significant Bit VLR Visitor Location Register

NRI Network Resource Identifier


3


3.1.3.2 GUTI

The objective of this section is to introduce the new UE-identifier GUTI and to illustrate its relationship to already known identifiers like the M-TMSI.

• The GUTI has been introduced as combination of MCC/MNC, MME-identification and M-TMSI to provide for an unambiguous identification of a UE without the need to reveal a permanent identity (e.g. IMSI) of that UE.

• The GUTI has a meaning only while the UE operates towards the EPC through E-UTRAN or through GERAN/UTRAN.

• The GUTI is not used if the UE is connected to the EPC through other access networks.

[3GTS 23.003 (2.8), 3GTS 24.301 (9.9.3.10)]


3





MCC Mobile Country Code [ITU-T E.212]

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)

GUMMEI Global Unique MME Identity (3GTS 23.003)

MMEI Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.003)

GUTI Global Unique Terminal Identity (3GTS 23.003)





UE User Equipment


3


3.2 Bearer Concept & QoS-Architecture in SAE

3.2.1 SAE-Bearers, Classification and Policy Enforcement

The objectives of this section are to illustrate the position of the downlink and uplink classification functions within the new system architecture and the rules which apply during the classification

[3GTR 23.882 (7.12.5)]

• The PDN-GW takes care of classification functions in downlink direction and therefore plays the role of the PCEF [3GTS 23.203 (6.2.2)] within the 3GPP QoS-architecture.

• Accordingly, the PDN-GW will perform policy enforcement and classification upon the downlink IP-packets. Note that policy enforcement may also result in traffic shaping (delaying traffic) or traffic policing (discard traffic).

• The applicability of the depicted processing rules within access networks beyond E-UTRAN or 3GPP-networks is questionable, because those access networks may either not support QoS in the first place or the SAE QoS-parameters cannot be translated into QoS-rules of that access network.

• Accordingly, the TR 23.882 talks about SAE-bearers but usually focuses on E-UTRAN as access network.


3




DL Downlink QoS Quality of Service





IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)

PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (3GTS 23.203)


PDN Packet Data Network UL Uplink




3


3.2.2 The QoS-Profile of the SAE-Bearer


3


The objective of this section is to illustrate the parameters within the SAE QoS-profile.

Key point of this section is that the QoS-profile of the SAE-bearer differs completely from 2G/3G-QoS-profiles and comes with much less QoS-parameters.

[3GTR 23.882 (7.12.6)]

3.2.2.1 GBR - Guaranteed Bit Rate

3.2.2.2 MBR - Maximum Bit Rate

3.2.2.3 AMBR - Aggregate Maximum Bit RateWhether AMBR applies to all SAE-bearers (GBR + non-GBR) of an individual user, or only to their GBR- or Non-GBR-bearers, is currently FFS. [3GTR 23.882 (7.12.8)]

3.2.2.4 ARP - Allocation Retention PriorityThe ARP shall only be considered upon bearer establishment and at exceptional conditions when bearers need to be dropped, e.g. because of overload.The interpretation of ARP should be rather Priority of Allocation and Retention rather than Allocation, Retention, and Priority. 3GTR 23.882 states explicitly that a more precise definition of ARP is left FFS


AMBR Aggregated Maximum Bit Rate HSS Home Subscriber Server [3GTS 23.002]. HSS replaces the HLR with 3GPP Rel. 5

ARP Allocation and Retention Priority IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791)

DL Downlink MBR Maximum Bit Rate

DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer QCI QoS Class Identifier

EPS Evolved Packet Switched QoS Quality of Service

FFS For Further Study SAE System Architecture Evolution

GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate UL Uplink


3


3.2.2.5 QCI-Values and their Meanings

The objective of this section is to illustrate the 3GPP-defined mapping between the label QCI on one hand and the physical QoS and typical applications on the other hand.

Detailed DescriptionThe most important new parameter within the SAE QoS-profile acts as a label to determine a specific traffic handling behavior. [3GTS 23.203 (table 6.1.7)]

3.2.2.6 Mapping between Rel. 8 QoS and earlier Releases

Question No 25: According to [3GTR 23.203 (table A.3)] there is also a mapping between the nine QCI-values and the traffic classes of the 2G/3G QoS-profile. Please add this mapping to your document.


3




3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report QoS Quality of Service

GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate SAE System Architecture Evolution





3


3.2.3 QoS-Architecture with Release 8

The objectives of this section are to introduce the QoS-architecture with Release 8 and to clarify the relationship between the central network element PCRF and the other network elements.

3.2.3.1 PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.1)]

3.2.3.2 BBERF (Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.7)]

3.2.3.3 PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.2)]

3.2.3.4 AF (Application Function)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.3)]


3







AF Assured Forwarding (DiffServ Term) PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

BBERF Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function (3GTS 23.203)


OCS Online Charging System (3GTS 23.203)

Rx Receive(r)

OFCS Offline Charging System (3GTS 23.203)

SPR Subscription Profile Repository (3GTS 23.203)


V-PLMN Visited PLMN


3


3.2.3.5 SPR (Subscription Profile Repository)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.4)]

3.2.3.6 OCS (Online Charging System)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.5)]

3.2.3.7 OFCS (Offline Charging System)

[3GTS 23.203 (6.2.6)]

Question No 26: Please insert the actual network elements into the empty boxes of BBERF, PCEF, AF and SPR.

[3GTS 23.203 (5)]


3





OFCS Offline Charging System (3GTS 23.203)

AF Assured Forwarding (DiffServ Term) PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (3GTS 23.203)



OCS Online Charging System (3GTS 23.203)


3


3.2.4 Bearer Establishment & Authorization - Differences Rel. 8 vs former Releases

The objective of this section is to illustrate that with Release 8 bearer management is typically initiated by the network rather than by the UE as with former releases.

The BSM (Bearer Service Manager) rather resides in the network than in the UE with Release 8 and all related procedures are network initiated.


3




BSM Bearer Service Manager PS Packet Switched



IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) RAN Radio Access Network

IP-CAN Internet Protocol - Connectivity Access Network (e.g. DSL, TV-Cable, WiMAX, UMTS)

SM Session Management (3GTS 23.060, 3GTS 24.008)


UE User Equipment


3


3.2.5 Relationship and Dependency among the different Bearers

The objectives of this section are to clarify some bearer related terminology and to illustrate through which means QoS is achieved on the different interfaces.

Key point of this section is that the different bearers like the EPS-bearer are bi-directional but the traffic flows that use them are unidirectional.

Question No 27: Please fill in the missing information of interface name, bearer type etc.

• The default EPS-bearer [3GTS 23.401 (4.7.2)] is established once the UE attaches to a PDN through a P-GW. One can say, the network will establish the default EPS-bearer towards the UE upon power on.

• This enables "always-on" for the UE.

The default EPS-bearer is by definition a non-GBR-bearer w/o TFT. [3GTS 24.301 (4.7.2.1)].


3


• If required, e.g. through different QoS-requirements compared to the default EPS-bearer, there will be additional dedicated EPS-bearers for user data traffic.

• As mentioned earlier, almost every EPS-bearer is associated with a UL-TFT and DL-TFT. The exception is the default EPS-bearer.

• Every EPS-bearer is identified by an EPS-bearer identity [3GTS 23.401 (5.2.1)]. If applicable, the EPS-bearer identity is the same as the NSAPI and the transaction identifier (TI).

[3GTS 23.401 (4.7.2), 23.402 (4.10.3)]



DL Downlink PDN Packet Data Network

eNB Enhanced Node B QoS Quality of Service

EPS Evolved Packet Switched TFT Traffic Flow Template

GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate TI Transaction Identifier

NSAPI Network Service Access Point Identifier

UE User Equipment


UL Uplink


3




3


Chapter 4:

Protocol Suite

Objectives Some of your questions that will be answered during this session…

• Can I obtain a short overview of the most important characteristics of all the protocols which are used within the EPC-environment?

• How do the e2e-protocol stacks look like within the SAE-environment?

• Which tasks do EMM and ESM take care of and how do EMM and ESM compare and relate to GMM and SM?

Protocol Suite

4


4.1 The “Mainstream” Protocol Stacks

4.1.1 Control Plane / E-UTRAN - EPC

The objectives of this section are to depict the protocols which are related to the control plane between UE, MME and HSS and to highlight whether these protocols are E-UTRAN-specific, EPC-specific of generic.


4




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol


PHY Physical Layer









IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) TCP Transmission Control Protocol

MAC Medium Access Control UE User Equipment



Protocol Suite

4


4.1.2 User Plane E-UTRAN – EPC (S5/S8 GTP-based)

The objectives of this section are to depict the protocols which are related to the user plane between UE and PDN-GW in case that GTP is applied on S5/S8 and to highlight whether these protocols are E-UTRAN-specific, EPC-specific of generic.


4




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol




PHY Physical Layer



GTP-C GTP Control Plane S-GW Serving Gateway (3GTS 23.401)

GTP-U GTP User Plane S1-AP S1 Application Part



IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) TCP Transmission Control Protocol

MAC Medium Access Control UDP User Datagram Protocol (RFC 768)


UE User Equipment

NAT Network Address Translation (RFC 1631)


Protocol Suite

4


4.1.3 User Plane E-UTRAN – EPC (S5/S8 PMIPv6/GRE-based)

The objectives of this section are to depict the protocols which are related to the user plane between UE and PDN-GW in case that GRE is applied on S5/S8 and to highlight whether these protocols are E-UTRAN-specific, EPC-specific of generic.


4









PHY Physical Layer



GTP-U GTP User Plane RLC Radio Link Control



IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol (RFC 2960)

MAC Medium Access Control TCP Transmission Control Protocol




UE User Equipment

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

Protocol Suite

4


4.2 Generic Protocols within the EPC-Environment

4.2.1 IPv4 and IPv6 and their Differences

4.2.1.1 Headers and IP-Address Ranges

The objective of this section is to illustrate the different header format and length of IPv4 and IPv6.

The most important differences between the headers of IPv4 and IPv6 can be deducted from the image:

• Address RangeThe address range of IPv4 is restricted by the 32 bit length and allows, in theory, for 232 different IP-addresses. In practice, the number of addresses is essentially smaller because of sub-optimum address organization.Opposed to that, IPv6 allows for 2128 different IP-addresses and therefore can cope better with the ever increasing demand for IP-addresses.

• Header SimplicityThe IPv4-header contains many more different fields than the IPv6-header. These fields need to be evaluated and partly altered by intermediate routers. The best example is the “header checksum” which changes with every hop, because the TTL-field changes with every hop.

• Use of “Next Headers”In IPv6, many conditional functions and information elements like security, mobility or fragmentation have been relayed in the optional “Next Header” section. This way, those information elements are only present if actually needed.

[RFC 791, RFC 2460]


4




DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer IPsec Internet Protocol / secure (RFC 4301)

ECN Explicit Congestion Notification IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4)




RFC Request for Comments (Internet Standards)

IHL Internet Header Length TTL Time To Live (IP-Header / RFC 791)


Protocol Suite

4


4.2.1.2 How to obtain an IP-Address

4.2.1.2.1 IPv4 and DHCP

The objective of this section is to illustrate how a client typically obtains an IP-address if the IP-version is IPv6.

[RFC 2131]


4




ACK Acknowledgement IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791)

ARP Address Resolution Protocol (RFC 826)




Protocol Suite

4


4.2.1.2.2 IPv6 and “Stateless Autoconfiguration”

The objective of this section is to illustrate how a client typically obtains an IP-address if the IP-version is IPv6.

The IEEE introduced a mechanism how to generate a globally unique 64 bit identifier from the 48 bit long MAC-address of a device. This mechanism is termed EUI-64.

[RFC 4861, 4862]


4




EUI-64 Extended Unique Identifier - 64 bit long (IEEE / the "other 64 bit" of an IPv6-address, following the IPv6-network prefix and generated from the MAC-address)



MAC Medium Access Control



Protocol Suite

4


4.2.1.2.3 Real-Life Recording: Stateless Autoconfiguration

The objective of this section is to provide a log file example of stateless autoconfiguration with IPv6.

Any receiving IPv6-client that is looking for the globally unique IPv6-prefix of this network will look into the ICMPv6: Router Advertisement message and apply the illustrated prefix.

[RFC 4861, 4862]


4







Protocol Suite

4


4.2.1.3 Fragmentation in IPv4 and IPv6

The objective of this section is to depict the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 when it comes to fragmentation.

Key point of this section is that IPv6 requires the execution of path MTU-discovery before the actual data transmission starts between any two peers.


4




IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) IPv6 Internet Protocol (version 6)

IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) MTU Maximum Transmit Unit (IP)

Protocol Suite

4


4.2.2 QoS in IP-Networks

4.2.2.1 DiffServ

The objective of this section is to introduce the students into the operation of DiffServ and to illustrate the definition of the two DiffServ terms PHB [RFC 2475 (2+3)] and PDB [RFC 3086].

Image Description

• The image illustrates a DiffServ aware network with a number of routers inside.

• Each router will process IP-frames according to the PHB which is stored within that router and which relates to a certain DSCP-setting.

• Such PHB relates to the treatment of that IP-frame compared to other incoming or already queued IP-frames.

• Opposed to that there is the PDB which provides the measurable and cumulative aggregation of all the PHB’s that an IP-frame experienced inside the network.

Important PHB's are AF (X, Y) and EF.


4




DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer PHB Per Hop Behavior (DiffServ Term)

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) QoS Quality of Service

PDB Per Domain Behavior (DiffServ Term) RFC Request for Comments (Internet Standards)

Protocol Suite

4


4.2.2.1.1 Details of the AF(X,Y) PHB (Assured Forwarding)

The objective of this section is to illustrate the behavior of AF-aware routers and the meaning of the different priority classes (X) and the drop priority Y.

Key point of this section is that the individual packet tagging with a drop probability value usually occurs according to the earlier introduced rules for the determination of excess traffic (section 2.3.3.4).

Image Description

• The image illustrates a router with three ingress paths and two egress paths.

• Incoming packets are differently marked (green, yellow and red) to indicate their drop probability.

• In addition and not indicated in the image, the different packets belong to different priority classes (X = 1 through X = 4).

• The various X- and Y-values are technically realized through predefined settings of the DSCP of a packet as illustrated in the table.

• Note how we applied the different colors in the table to differentiate the meaning of the 6 bits into drop probability and class.

[RFC 2597 (6)]


4


Room for your Notes

Abbreviations of this Section:

AF Assured Forwarding (DiffServ Term) PHB Per Hop Behavior (DiffServ Term)

DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer RFC Request for Comments (Internet Standards)

Protocol Suite

4


4.2.2.1.2 Details of the EF PHB (Expedite Forwarding)

The objective of this section is to illustrate how EF-traffic is treated and differentiated from other traffic within a DiffServ router.

Key point of this section is that EF-traffic should not absorb too many resources within a DiffServ network. Recommended values rank from 20 % to 30 % but in practice and because of demand, many implementations allow app. 50% of the resources to be available for EF-traffic.

Image Description

• The image illustrates another rout er and its internal queues (similar to the AF-router presented earlier).

• New is the EF-queue at the bottom which takes on all EF-tagged traffic.

Note that EF-traffic does not provide for different drop probabilities as AF does.

[RFC 3246]


4


Question No 28: Which problems do you see with respect to the EF PHB?

Room for your Notes


AF Assured Forwarding (DiffServ Term) PHB Per Hop Behavior (DiffServ Term)

DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer RFC Request for Comments (Internet Standards)

EF Expedite Forwarding (DiffServ Term)

Protocol Suite

4


4.2.3 SCTP

4.2.3.1 Important SCTP-Functions

The objective of this section is to list the most important assets and functions of the SCTP.

Key point of this section is that this section shall only serve as a fast overview. More details will be provided later during this course.


4


Room for your Notes


DoS Denial of Service attack SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol (RFC 2960)



Protocol Suite

4


4.2.3.2 Example of an SCTP-Packet

The objective of this section is to illustrate an SCTP DATA-chunk example from a life recording.

Key point of this section is that SCTP applies two numbering schemes for data chunks:1. A stream internal one which uses the stream sequence number. 2. Another one over all streams which uses the TSN.


4


Room for your Notes


DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer MTP Message Transfer Part (ITU-T Q.701 - Q.709)

ECN Explicit Congestion Notification SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol (RFC 2960)

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) TSN Transmission Sequence Number

M2UA MTP-2 User Adaptation Layer (RFC 3331)

Protocol Suite

4


4.2.4 DIAMETER

The objective of this section is to introduce the students into the most important aspects of the DIAMETER protocol.

[Core Spec: RFC 3588, S6a/S6d and S13-interfaces: 3GTS 29.272]


4




ACK Acknowledgement IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791)

AVP Attribute Value Pair (DIAMETER-term / RFC 3588)




DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol TCP Transmission Control Protocol


TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol over IP

Protocol Suite

4


4.3 Protocols related to E-UTRA Networks

4.3.1 EPS Mobility Management (EMM)

4.3.1.1 Important EMM-Procedures

The objective of this section is to illustrate the different EMM-procedures.

Procedures can be combined with each other. Example: The authentication procedure is typically part of the attachment procedure.

[3GTS 24.301 (5.1.2)]


4


4.3.1.1.1 Common ProceduresCommon procedures are typically embedded into a given specific procedure.

4.3.1.1.2 Specific Procedures

4.3.1.1.3 Connection Management Procedures



E-UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access





Protocol Suite

4


4.3.1.2 State Machine

The objective of this section is to illustrate the different EMM-states and their relationship.

[3GTS 24.301 (5)]

EMM and ESM are linked with each other [3GTS 24.301 (4.2)]

While the UE is in EMM-CONNECTED state, the network is in charge to control the UE-mobility.

While the UE is in EMM-IDLE mode, the location of the UE is known with the granularity of a tracking area.While the UE is in EMM-CONNECTED mode, the location of the UE is known with the granularity of a cell inside an eNodeB.

[3GTS 24.301 (5.1.3.2.2.4)]


4









UE User Equipment

Protocol Suite

4


4.3.2 EPS Session Management (ESM)

4.3.2.1 Important ESM-Procedures

The objective of this section is to present the important ESM-procedures.

Key point of this section is that the actual activation, deactivation or modification of an EPS-bearer must be initiated and conducted by the network. This is a major difference to previous releases where PDP-context activation had to be triggered by the UE.


4


4.3.2.1.1 MME-initiated

4.3.2.1.2 UE-initiated

[3GTS 24.301 (6.4), (6.5)]





EPS Evolved Packet Switched PDP Packet Data Protocol


UE User Equipment

Protocol Suite

4


4.3.2.2 State Machine

The objectives of this section are to illustrate the state machine of ESM and the different ways to migrate between the two states.

[3GTS 24.301 (6)]


4




EPS Evolved Packet Switched PDN Packet Data Network


UE User Equipment


Protocol Suite

4


4.3.3 Radio Resource Control RRC

4.3.3.1 Overview

The objective of this section is to introduce the key features of the radio resource control layer.

Key point of this section is that the tasks of the RRC stay mostly the same as UMTS and HSPA, but since the air interface is different there are significant changes in the implementation.


4


4.3.3.1.1 Transmission of broadcast informationHere is it very important to know that only the MIB is transmitted on the BCH. All the other SIB’s are grouped in SU’s according to their transmission periodicity and are transmitted on the DL-SCH.

4.3.3.1.2 Establish and maintain servicesHere the basic concepts are very different. The RRC connection setup procedure has been extended to the initial context setup procedure. RRC and NAS link are established in parallel. Moreover since there is a new air interface technology (OFDMA and SC-FDMA) used the message contents are different. Another very significant change is the drastic reduction of RRC states mentioned earlier.

4.3.3.1.3 QoS controlNothing to add to what is stated in the picture.

4.3.3.1.4 Transfer of dedicated control informationNothing to add to what is stated in the picture.

[3GTR 25.813 (5.4), 3GTS 36.300 (7), 3GTS 36.331 (4.4)]


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report NAS Non-Access-Stratum


OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

BCH Broadcast Channel QoS Quality of Service

DL Downlink RRC Radio Resource Control

DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access


SIB System Information Block

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access SU Scheduling Unit

HSPA High Speed Packet Access (operation of HSDPA and HSUPA)

UE User Equipment

MIB Master Information Block UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

Protocol Suite

4


4.3.3.2 State Characteristics of RRC

The objective of this section is to introduce the key features of the radio resource control states.

Key point of this section is that there are only 2 (3) RRC states in LTE.

Image description

• The picture is shows the RRC states in LTE and their main characteristics. It focuses on the processes of the E-UTRAN.

4.3.3.2.1 RRC_IDLEDuring RRC_IDLE the UE can be paged and will listen to the PCH and the BCH, but it is not known by the eNB it will perform cell reselections. Keep also in mind that this state will also assumed once the UE is switched on and will perform initial cell search.

4.3.3.2.2 RRC_CONNECTEDHere the UE is fully connected to the eNB. That means it has a C-RNTI and it is known on cell level. It will do neighbor cell measurements and handover. This state is also assumed to be used for MBMS services.

[3GTR 25.813 (5.4.2), 3GTS 36.300 (7.2)]


4


Room for your Note


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report RACH Random Access Channel


RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel RRC Radio Resource Control

BCH Broadcast Channel RRC_CONNECTED

RRC state in E-UTRA

C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier

RRC_IDLE

RRC state

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) RRC_MBMS_CONNECTED

RRC state in E-UTRA for UEs with MBMS service only

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast / Multicast Service

UE User Equipment

NAS Non-Access-Stratum UTRAN UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network

PCH Paging Channel eNB Enhanced Node B

Protocol Suite

4


4.3.4 Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)

4.3.4.1 Overview

The objective of this section is to introduce the key features of the packet data convergence protocol.

Key point of this section is that encryption and PDCP for the control plane are the functions which have been added to the PDCP compared to UMTS.

4.3.4.1.1 RoHCIt is still for further study whether to take RoHC or another scheme.

4.3.4.1.2 Numbering of PDCP PDU’sThe numbering of the PDCP PDU’s is very important because during the handover it is the PDCP which will forward the data in the buffer to the target eNB.

4.3.4.1.3 In-sequence delivery of PDU’sOnce the data is forwarded during handover it can happen that data is coming in already in the target eNB and there might still come some data in form the source eNB. The data is then not in sequence and there might be some duplicates in the buffer of the PDCP.

4.3.4.1.4 Duplicate deletionSee above.


4


4.3.4.1.5 EncryptionThe encryption algorithms have been located in the MAC and in the RLC for UMTS and HSPA operation. In LTE they are transferred to the PDCP. This is due to the fact that every eNB is equipped with its own keys and that the PDCP has to combine the packets coming in from the other eNB’s during handover.

4.3.4.1.6 Integrity ProtectionThis is a feature only valid for the control plane in UTRA this was in the RRC layer. This involves to calculate the MAC according the same principle but possibly with a different algorithm.[3GTR 25.813 (5.3.3), 3GTS 36.300 (6.3), 3GTS 36.323 (4.4)]

Room for your Notes


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report RLC Radio Link Control




RoHC Robust Header Compression

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

MAC Message Authentication Code UTRA UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol eNB Enhanced Node B

PDU Protocol Data Unit or Packet Data Unit

Protocol Suite

4


4.3.4.2 Structure of PDCP PDU

The objective of this section is to provide the structure of the PDCP PDU.

Key point of this section is that the LTE PDCP PDU can also carry control plane information.

Image description

• This picture is visualizing the structure of the header and the sequence of SDU’s in the PDCP PDU.

In contrast to UMTS the PDCP is also existing in the control plane. Consequently also for control plane the PDCP PDU has to be defined.For both control plane and user plane the PDCP PDU is exhibiting a SN (Sequence Number) and an SDU field. For the user plane there can be optionally a RoHC (Robust Header Compression) which is compressing the e.g. 40 byte header to a 2-3 byte compressed header. In order to control RoHC in the user plane, user plane PDCP PDU contain a D/C field indicating control or data.For the control plane for integrity protection purposes the MAC field might be added at the end. The MAC field is calculated according to similar guidelines as the MAC in UMTS.[3GTS 36.323 (6)]


4


Room for your Notes




LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) SDU Service Data Unit (the payload of a PDU)

MAC Message Authentication Code SN Sequence Number

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System


Protocol Suite

4


4.3.5 The S1-AP Protocol

The objective of this section is to introduce the students into the most important aspects of the S1-AP protocol which is used between the MME and the eNodeB.

[3GTS 36.413]


4




ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ITU-T X.680 / X.681)

RNSAP Radio Network Subsystem Application Part (3GTS 25.423)



NBAP NodeB Application Part (3GTS 25.433)

UE User Equipment

PER Packed Encoding Rules (ITU-T X.691) UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

Protocol Suite

4




4


Chapter 5:

Call Flows & Scenarios


• How does a UE attach to the EPC through E-UTRAN and how does it establish the default EPS-bearer?

• How does a tracking area update scenario look like?

• What happens in case of a PDP-context activation?

• How is a handover performed in E-UTRAN?


5


5.1 Attachment through E-UTRAN / new MME

The objective of this section is to illustrate the first part of an attach scenario [3GTS 23.401 (5.3.2), 24.301 (5.5.1)] through E-UTRAN end-to-end and with all related messages.

Key point of this section is that the indicated procedure illustrates one possible straight forward case but does not depict all possible options.

Question No 29: Please fill in the missing interface names.

The eNodeB selects the MME at this time, if necessary. Possibly, the MMEI which is included in the ATT_REQ-message relates to an MME which is available to the eNodeB in which case no MME-selection is necessary.

The S1-AP: INITIAL_UE_MSG includes the parameter “eNB UE S1AP ID” which shall serve as unique identifier for S1-AP-messages sent by this eNodeB to that MME for that particular UE. This parameter has been assigned by the eNodeB.

We assume in this case that the MME is unable to determine or connect to the previous MME and therefore requests the UE to convey its IMSI. Otherwise, at this time we would see GTP-messages to retrieve the UE-context from the previous MME.


5


To be continued on the next page








MMEI Mobility Management Entity Identity (3GTS 23.003)

eNB Enhanced Node B RRC Radio Resource Control




UE User Equipment


5


The S1-AP: DL_NAS_TRANSPORT message includes the parameter “MME UE S1AP ID” which shall serve as unique identifier for S1-AP-messages sent by the MME to that eNodeB for that particular UE. This parameter has been assigned by the MME.

The subscription data contain, among others, relationships to specific PDN's, information about PDN-GW to be selected (if applicable) and APN-restrictions.

RRC-connection establishment: [3GTS 36.331 (5.3.3)]RRC downlink information transfer: [3GTS 36.331 (5.6.1)]RRC uplink information transfer: [3GTS 36.331 (5.6.2)]RRC connection reconfiguration [3GTS 36.331 (5.3.5)]S1-AP initial UE-message: [3GTS 36.413 (8.6.2.1)]S1-AP initial context setup: [3GTS 36.413 (8.3.1)]S1-AP downlink NAS transport: [3GTS 36.413 (8.6.2.2)]S1-AP uplink NAS transport: [3GTS 36.413 (8.6.2.3)]DIAMETER: AIR, AIA, ULR, ULA [3GTS 29.272]


5










NAS Non-Access-Stratum UE User Equipment



5


5.1 Attachment through E-UTRAN / new MME (continued)

The objective of this section is to continue and conclude the attach scenario from the previous section.

Key point of this section is to appreciate the embedding of ESM- into EMM-messages which in turn are embedded into RRC-messages. This is new with SAE.

Question No 30: Please fill in the missing interface names.

Not depicted is a possible interaction between the PDN-GW and the PCRF.

The UE may be equipped with both, an IPv4 and an IPv6 address. Please recall that an IPv6-address is typically generated from the H-PLMN's IPv6 network prefix (64 bit) and the UE's MAC-address (EUI-64).


5


Note the final IE “F-TEID of S-GW user plane”. This information must be relayed to the eNodeB to enable a communication between S-GW and eNodeB.GTP Create Session Request: [3GTS 29.274 (7.2.1)]GTP Create Session Response: [3GTS 29.274 (7.2.2)]GTP Modify Bearer Request: [3GTS 29.274 (7.2.7)]GTP Modify Bearer Response: [3GTS 29.274 (7.2.8)]EMM Attach Request message: [3GTS 24.301 (8.2.4)]EMM Attach Accept message: [3GTS 24.301 (8.2.1)]ESM Activate Default EPS Bearer Context Request message: [3GTS 24.301 (8.3.6)]




DRB Data Radio Bearer MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)





EPS Evolved Packet Switched PDN Packet Data Network



EUI-64 Extended Unique Identifier - 64 bit long (IEEE / the "other 64 bit" of an IPv6-address, following the IPv6-network prefix and generated from the MAC-address of a device)


F-TEID Fully Qualified Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (3GTS 29.274)




GTP-U GTP User Plane S1-AP S1 Application Part



H-PLMN Home PLMN SRB Signaling Radio Bearer

IE Information Element TAI Tracking Area Identity (3GTS 24.301)

IPv4 Internet Protocol (version 4) TEID Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (GTP / 3GTS 29.060)

IPv6 Internet Protocol (version 6) UE User Equipment


5


5.2 Tracking Area Update

The objective of this section is to show the information flow for a TA update of a UE.

Key point of this section is that for a TA update quite similar procedures are used as for the RA updates in UMTS and GPRS networks.

5.1.1 Inter MME tracking area updateThe first step of the tracking area update is that a UE has selected a new cell found a new cell with a different TAI. Then it will initiate the TA update procedure and will send a tracking area registration message. This message will contain the old S-TMSI and the old TAI. For the inter MME TA update procedure the MME which is connected to the eNB will find out that it has not administered the UE before and will contact the old MME which has previously administered that UE. This will be done by means of a request for transfer of the contexts which is accompanied by the old S-TMSI. By means of the old S-TMSI the old MME will initiate the transfer of the UE’s contexts to the new MME and the new Serving GW. Since old and new Serving GW are not logically interconnected the relaying of Serving GW’s part of the UE context will involve S11 messaging on both sides. Once the new MME has received the UE’s contexts it might ask for UE authentication and for ciphering of the remaining procedure. Then it will register as the MME responsible for the UE with the UE’s HSS. The HSS will initiate the de-registration of the UE’s contexts with the old MME and will then confirm the registration with the new MME.Then the UE is informed that the TA registration is complete.Finally the Serving GW will perform the user plane rout update with the PDN GW.[3GTS 23.882 (7.7.2.3)]


5


5.1.2 Intra MME tracking area updateOnce the TA update is necessary within the service area of the MME the TA update procedure become quite simple. Only the two MM messages indicated in the picture will be exchanged.[3GTS 23.882 (7.7.2.2)]

Room for your Notes



RA Routing Area

EMM Evolved Mobility Management SAE System Architecture Evolution

GPRS General Packet Radio Service S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

GW Gateway TA Tracking Area

HSS Home Subscriber Server (3GTS 23.002). HSS replaces the HLR with 3GPP Rel. 5

UE User Equipment

ID Identity UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System


eNB Enhanced Node B



5


5.3 PDP Context Establishment

The objective of this section is to show the information flow during a PDP context establishment of an UE.

Key points of this section are that the PDP context establishment is embedded in the initial context setup procedure and that for LTE the Serving GW starts already to forward data to the eNB even though the PDP context establishment procedure has not finished.

Precondition for the PDP context establishment procedure is that the UE is in EMM-REGISTERED & ECM-IDLE and default IP-connectivity has already been established.In this example the PDP context is establishment is initiated by the network the difference to the UE initiated PDP context establishment procedure is that paging is used in order to reach the UE and that the UE might be requested to perform a non-contention based random access procedure. In case of a UE initiated initial context procedure the random access is always contention based.The first step of the network initiated PDP context establishment procedure is that the PDN GW has data for the UE. By means the default IP connectivity already established it knows which Serving GW is responsible for that UE and it will send the data to the Serving GW. The Serving GW will discover that it has no S1-U resources for that UE and it will request the MME to get these resources established. The MME will then issue a paging message to the eNB’s responsible for the UE’s TA. Optionally the eNB can assign RA resources being non-contention based to the UE and will indicate this by the RA preamble to be used.The next step is the RA procedure initiated by the UE. With the CCCH it will transmit the RRC connection request containing the service request. This service request will be forwarded with the INITIAL UE MESSAGE to the MME. The MME – knowing that it relates to the paging it has initiated before - will trigger the Serving GW to start to transmit data to the eNB.[3GTR 23.882 (7.14), 3GTS 36.300 (19.2.2.3)]


5


Room for your Notes


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report PDP Packet Data Protocol


RA Routing Area

CCCH Common Control Channel RACH Random Access Channel

EMM-REGISTERED & ECM-IDLE

Enhanced Mobility Management state for non active packet transmission


GW Gateway S1-AP S1 Application Part

ID Identity SAE System Architecture Evolution

IP Internet Protocol (RFC 791) TA Timing Advance

LTE Long Term Evolution (of UMTS) TX Transmit


UE User Equipment

NAS Non-Access-Stratum UL Uplink

PCCH Paging Control Channel UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel

PCH Paging Channel eNB Enhanced Node B



5


5.3 PDP Context Establishment

Key point of this section is that while the PDP context establishment procedure continues with the Serving GW is already transmitting data to the eNB.

The steps taken on this picture are that in order to save time many NAS messages are issued at the same time such as the SAE bearer setup, the security context setup, the service accept and the PDP context activation message. The eNB will process these messages and translate/forward them to the UE with the RRC radio bearer setup message.The UE will accept the PDP context and will signal to the eNB that it also completes the security mode command (ciphering) and the RAB assignment. The eNB will then inform the MME that the PDP context has been accepted and confirm the SAE bearer setup whilst it will start already to transmit ciphered data to the UE.

[3GTR 23.882 (7.14), 3GTS 36.300 (19.2.2.3)]

Room for your Notes


5


Room for your Notes


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report MME Mobility Management Entity (3GTS 23.401) (Rel. 8 onwards)



ACK Acknowledgement PDP Packet Data Protocol

AS Access Stratum (UMTS) RAB Radio Access Bearer

DCCH Dedicated Control Channel RB Radio Bearer

DL Downlink RRC Radio Resource Control

DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel S1-AP S1 Application Part

DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel SAE System Architecture Evolution

FSS For Further Study UE User Equipment

GW Gateway eNB Enhanced Node B

ID Identity


5


5.4 Inter MME Handover

The objective of this section is to show the information flow for an inter MME handover.

Key point of this section is that for the inter MME handover there is no data forwarding in-between the eNB’s but inside the core.

Here the procedure is exactly the same as the intra MME handover until the source eNB decided to ask for a handover. Since this is an inter MME handover the source eNB will not address the target eNB directly but it will address its MME and will inform it that it should prepare a handover together with the target MME.The source MME will then contact the target MME with the hand over request. Then the target MME will first clarify with the target eNB whether a handover is possible. Once this is successful the target MME will inform the target Serving GW about the handover. Once all that is successful the target MME will inform the source MME that the handover can commence now. The source MME will then trigger the data forwarding in-between the source Serving GW and the target Serving GW. Instead of a data forward also bicasting is possible for the core.

Since there is no interface in-between the Serving GW’s it is unclear to the author how exactly the data forward will be done. Whether there will be an interface in-between the Serving GW’s or whether the forwarding will take place using the S11 and S10 interfaces.

[3GTR 23.882 (7.15.2.2), 3GTS 36.300 (19.2.2)]


5


Room for your Notes


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel



ACK Acknowledgement S1-AP S1 Application Part

DCCH Dedicated Control Channel SAE System Architecture Evolution

GW Gateway SM Session Management (3GTS 23.060, 3GTS 24.008)

ID Identity UE User Equipment

MM Mobility Management UL Uplink


eNB Enhanced Node B



5


5.4 Inter MME Handover

Key point of this section is for the second part of the handover in the inter MME handover the route update is also involving the PDN GW.

Once the source MME is informed that the rest of the network is prepared for the inter MME handover it will issue the handover command to the source eNB which will then issue the handover command to the UE. For then on the procedure will be the same as for the intra MME handover until the handover complete will be issued to the target MME. There is one exemption: the source eNB will not forward any data to the target eNB. This is already done in the core.The target MME will then trigger a route update with the target Serving GW and the PDN GW. Once this is done the target MME will trigger the source MME to stop the data forwarding to release the resources.

The discussion for the inter MME handover is not finished. Other possibilities in the discussion are to do mobility management like in the idle mode (TA updates and cell updates) for low delay constraint data services or having overlapping coverage areas for the MME’s.

[3GTR 23.882 (7.15.2.2), 3GTS 36.300 (19.2.2)]


5


Room for your Notes


3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report RACH Random Access Channel





DCCH Dedicated Control Channel SAE System Architecture Evolution

DL Downlink TA Timing Advance

DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel UE User Equipment

GW Gateway UL Uplink


UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel

PDN Packet Data Network eNB Enhanced Node B


5


Solutions

Q&A-Sessions:

• Answer for Question No 1:One proposal is:1. Provision of a suitable core network for E-UTRAN with its stronger requirements in terms of latency and throughput.2. Better adoption of non-3GPP RAT's.3. Packet-switched only approach.

• Answer for Question No 2:The consequences have been added to the image underneath.

• Answer for Question No 3:Compared to Rel. 7, the most important advantages are the introduction of handover optimizations for E-UTRAN <=> GERAN/UTRAN and E-UTRAN <=> cdma2000.One may argue whether the introduction of DSMIPv6 accounts to SAE, too. However, considering that DSMIPv6 is an IETF-based technology it is unrelated to 3GPP, SAE and Rel. 7.

• Answer for Question No 4:In case of roaming and particularly when using local breakout the different types of traffic may use different ways. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to perform legal interception at the access router (e.g. S-GW) and at the edge router (PDN-GW).



•

• Answer for Questions No 5 and 6:The image with logical interfaces and their names has been depicted underneath.

• Answer for Question No 7:Serving Gateway and MME shall only be changed if necessary. In that respect, “necessary” relates usually to the accessibility of an MME or S-GW through an eNodeB. If the new eNodeB has no means to connect to the “old” MME / S-GW, then a “new” MME / S-GW need to be selected.MME's and S-GW's are organized in pools and either an eNodeB is part of the serviced eNodeB's of this MME- / S-GW-pool or not.

• Answer for Question No 8:The lines has to be drawn around the network clouds E-UTRAN and EPC.

• Answer for Question No 9:The SGSN decides based on the APN that has been provided by the UE. This APN “apn.epc.mnc<MNC>.mcc<MCC>.3gppnetwork.org” will clearly identify the EPC as target.

•

Solutions


• Answer for Questions No 10:

• Answer for Questions No 11:



• Answer for Question No 12:The UE determines this in different ways, depending on the network setup. The most likely option to differentiate IPv4 from IPv6 is that the UE receives Ethernet frames with type “IP” and the version-number inside the IP-frame indicates version 4 or version 6.Support for MIPv4 is indicated by the network by including MIPv4-options (most importantly the CoA (Care of Address) into ICMPv4: Router Advertisement-messages that are transmitted by the routers inside the network.

• Answer for Question No 13:The most important problem may arise when the network only supports MIPv4 but the UE does not support it and relied on the network to support PMIP. In such case, there will be no inter-RAT-mobility and the connections of the UE will drop in case of switching from one access network to the next.

• Answer for Question No 14:

Solutions



• Answer for Questions No 16:The image with interfaces and protocols included is depicted underneath.





Solutions


• Answer for Question No 19, 20 and 21:



• Answer for Question No 22:Like MME's, S-GW's are organized into pools and serve a so called service area. In that respect, each S-GW pool serves a pre-defined set of tracking areas. And like in case of MME's, the S-GW pools may overlap [3GTS 23.401 (3.1)]. The following images depict three possible options as to how S-GW's and MME's may be related to each other.

Solutions




• Answer for Question No 23: Why is there no NRI within an M-TMSI?Remember that the NRI is required in TMSI and P-TMSI to identify the VLR or SGSN that originally allocated that TMSI or P-TMSI. This "piggybacking" was done, because the concept of VLR- and SGSN-pool areas was introduced rather lately with Rel. 5 and there was no other means to incorporate an identifier of the originating network node.This is different with E-UTRAN and Rel. 8. The function of the NRI is taken care of by the MME-group Id + MME-code which remains separate from the M-TMSI.

• Answer for Question No 24: May an MME use different MME-codes?The answer is a clear "yes" under the constraint that such an MME needs to be part of more than one MME-pool. In each MME-pool the MME-group Id of that MME shall be different and the MME-code may be different.

• Answer for Question No 25:In the following table, the QCI-values have been colored according to their mapping to the respective traffic classes.

Solutions




• Answer for Question No 28: Which problems do you see with respect to the EF PHB?Jitter cannot be avoided entirely and it may aggregate over multiple hops.Load sensitivity: with increasing load, the risk of jitter and therefore poorer performance will be higher.Protection of best effort traffic is required. Accordingly, only a certain amount of the resources (time) may be reserved for the EF-traffic (e.g. 20%).



• Answer for Question No 29:The missing interface names are (from left to right): LTE-Uu, S1-MME, S6a

• Answer for Question No 30:The missing interface names are (from left to right): LTE-Uu, S1-MME, S11, S5 or S8 (depending on whether the PDN-GW is part of the current PLMN or not).

Solutions


List of Acronyms

Term Explanation

(V)ASSI Visited Alias Short Subscriber Identity

16-APK 16 symbols Amplitude Phase Keying

16-PPM 16 position Pulse Position Modulation

16-QAM 16 symbols Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

16VSB 16-level vestigial sideband modulation

1xCS IWS Circuit Switched Fallback Interworking solution Function for 3GPP2 1xCS (3GTS 23.272)

1xEV-DO One Carrier (1.25 MHz) Evolution - Data Only (cdma2000)

1xEV-DV One Carrier (1.25 MHz) Evolution - Data and Voice

2-GFSK 2 symbols Gaussian Frequency Shift Key or Keying

2B1Q Two Binary One Quaternary (Line Coding used on the ISDN U-Interface)

3G 3rd Generation ...


3GPP2 Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (similar to 3GPP, but consisting of ANSI, TIA and EIA-41, responsible for cdma2000, EvDO and EVDV)

3GTR 3rd Generation Technical Report


4-GFSK 4 symbols Gaussian Frequency Shift Key or Keying

4-PAM 4 symbols Pulse Amplitude Modulation

4-PPM 4 position Pulse Position Modulation

4G 4th Generation ...

64-QAM 64 symbols Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

8-PSK 8 Symbol Phase Shift Keying

8VSB 8-level Vestigial Sideband Modulation (ATSC)

A-Bit Acknowledgement Request Bit (used in LLC-protocol Logical Link Control)

A/V Audio / Video

A&S Applications & Services domain or server

AA Anonymous Access

AAA Authorize Authenticate Answer (DIAMETER message type)




AACH Access Assignment CHannel

AACH-Q Access Assignment CHannel, QAM

AAD Additional Authentication Data

AAL ATM-Adaption Layer

AAL-2 ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (for real-time services) (ITU-T I.363.2)

AAL-5 ATM-Adaptation Layer 5 (non-real time) (ITU-T I.363.5)

AAR Authorize Authenticate Request (DIAMETER message type)

AAS Adaptive Antenna Systems

ABM Asynchronous Balanced Mode

ABNF Augmented Backus Naur Form (RFC 2234)

AC Alternate Current

AC Access Class

ACC Access Control Class (3GTS 22.011)

ACCH Associated Control Channel (GSM / can be an SACCH or an FACCH)

ACELP Algebraic Codebook Excited Linear Prediction

ACK Acknowledgement

ACM Address Complete Message (ISUP-message type)

ACS Active Codec Set

ADCH Associated Dedicated Channel (3GTS 45.902)

ADDBA Add Block Acknowledgment

ADDTS Add Traffic Stream

ADM Asynchronous Disconnected Mode

ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation

ADSL2 Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line 2 (ITU-T G.992.3)

AES Advanced Encryption Standard / Cipher Key Lengths: 128 bit, 192 bit or 256 bit

AESA ATM End System Address

AF Assured Forwarding (DiffServ Term)

AFC Automatic Frequency Control

AFH Adaptive Frequency Hopping

AG Absolute Grant (3GTS 25.309)

AGA Air - Ground - Air service

AGC Automatic Frequency Control

AGCH Access Grant Channel (GSM)

AGS Absolute Grant Scope ('All' or 'Single' HARQ process)

List of Acronyms


AGV Absolute Grant Value (INACTIVE or Zero_Grant or E-DPDCH/DPCCH power ratio)

AH Authentication Header (RFC 4302)

AI Air Interface

AI Acquisition Indicator

AICH Acquisition Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

AID Association Identifier

AIFS Arbitration InterFrame Space

AIFSN Arbitration InterFrame Space Number

AIPN All IP Network

AJAX Asynchronous Javascript and XML

AK Authentication Key (IEEE 802.16)

AK Anonymity Key (3GTS 33.102)


AKD Authentication Key Distribution

AL Ambience Listening

AL Advanced Link

ALC Asynchronous Layered Coding

ALCAP Access Link Control Application Part (ITU-T Q.2630.1 / Q.2630.2)

ALG Application Layer Gateway

AM Amplitude Modulation

AM Acknowledged Mode operation

AMBR Aggregated Maximum Bit Rate

AMC Adaptive Modulation and Coding

AMD Acknowledged Mode Data (UMTS RLC PDU-type)

AMF Authentication management field (3GTS 33.102)

AMI Alternate Mark Inversion (Line Coding)

AMPS Advanced Mobile Phone System

AMR Adaptive Multirate Encoding (3GTS 26.090)

AMR_HR Adaptive Multi Rate with Half-Rate Codec

AMR-WB Adaptive Multi-Rate - WideBand speech codec (3GTS 26.273, ITU-T G.722.2)

AMR-WB+ Extended Adaptive Multi-Rate - WideBand speech codec (3GTS 26.304, 26.410, ITU-T G.722.1)


ANSI American National Standards Institute



AoD Audio on Demand

AP Access Preamble

AP Access Point (IEEE 802.11, 802.16)

AP-AICH CPCH Access Preamble Acquisition Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

APCO Association of Police Communications Officers

API Application Programming Interface

API Access Preamble Acquisition Indicator

APK Amplitude Phase Keying


APP A Posteriori Probability (Turbo Decoding)

AR Assured Rate PDB (DiffServ Term)

ARFCN Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number

ARIB Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (Japanese)

ARP Allocation and Retention Priority

ARP Address Resolution Protocol (RFC 826)

ARPU Average Revenue Per User

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AS application specific (within SDP-bandwidth specification / b-line)

AS Application Server

AS Access Stratum (UMTS)

AS-ILCM Application Server - Incoming Leg Control Model

AS-OLCM Application Server - Outgoing Leg Control Model

ASC Access Service Class

ASCA Adjacent Subcarrier Allocation

ASCI Advanced Speech Call Items (GSM-R)

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ANSI X3.4-1986)

ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASN Access Service Network

ASN-GW Access Service Network-Gateway

ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ITU-T X.680 / X.681)

ASP Application Server Process

ASSI Alias Short Subscriber Identity

AT_MAC Message Authentication Code

AT-Command Attention-Command

List of Acronyms


ATCA Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture

ATID Address Type Identifier in Demand

ATIM Announcement Traffic Indication Message

ATIS Alliance of Telecommunications Industry Solutions

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ITU-T I.361)

ATSC Advanced Television System Committee

ATSI Alias TETRA Subscriber Identity

AuC Authentication Center

AUTN Authentication Token (3GTS 33.102)

AV Authentication Vector (3GTS 33.102)

AVC Advanced Video Coding

AVL Automatic Vehicle Location

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

B2BUA Back-to-Back User Agent (SIP term / RFC 3261, RFC 3725)

B2DA Back-to-Back Dynamic Allocation

B8ZS Bipolar with Eight-Zero Substitution (Line Code used at the T1-Rate (1.544 Mbit/s))

BA Block Ack

BAR Block Ack Request

BAS Basic rate access ISDN-user interface for single lines (2 B-channels plus one D-Channel with 16 kbit/s)

BAT Bouquet Association Table (MPEG, DVB-SI)

BB Base Band module


BBK Broadcast BlocK

BC Broadcast

BCAST Broadcast

BCC Broadcast Call Control (3GTS 44.069)

BCC Binary Convolutional Coding

BCC Base Station Color Code

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel

BCCH-Q Broadcast Control CHannel, QAM

BCD Binary Coded Decimal

BCH Broadcast Channel

BCMCS Broadcast and Multicast Services (CDMA-2000 Rev. D)

BCTP Bearer Control Tunneling Protocol (ITU-T Q.1990)

BE Best Effort



BEC Backward Error Correction

BEG BEGin Message (TCAP)

BER Bit Error Rate

BFCP Binary Floor Control Protocol (draft-ietf-xcon-bfcp-05)

BFI Bad Frame Indication

BG Border Gateway

BGCF Breakout Gateway Control Function

BGP Border Gateway Protocol

BIB Backward Indicator Bit

BIC Blind Interference Cancellation

BICC Bearer Independent Call Control (ITU-T Q.1902.1 - Q.1902.6)

BK Background

BKN1 Block Number 1

BKN2 Block Number 2

BL Basic Link

BLCH Base station Linearization CHannel

BLER Block Error Rate

BM-IWF Broadcast Multicast Interworking Function

BM-SC Broadcast Multicast Service Center (3GTS 23.346)

BMC Broadcast / Multicast Control (3GTS 25.324)

BN Bit Number

BNCH Broadcast Network CHannel

BNCH-Q Broadcast Network CHannel, QAM

BNF Backus Naur Form (RFC 2234)

BPSC Bits per Sub Carrier

BPSK Binary or Bipolar Phase Shift Keying

BQA Bluetooth Qualification Administer

BQB Bluetooth Qualification Body

BQRB Bluetooth Qualification Review Board

BQTF Bluetooth Qualification Test Facility

BR Bandwidth Request (WiMAX Term)

BRA Bit Rate Adaptation

BRAN Broadband Radio Access Network

BS Base Station (IEEE 802.16)

BS_CV_MAX Maximum Countdown Value to be used by the mobile station (Countdown Procedure)

BS_EIRP Base Station Effective Isotropic Radiated Power

List of Acronyms


BSC Base Station Controller

BSCH Broadcast Synchronization CHannel

BSD Berkeley Software Distribution

BSIC Base Station Identity Code

BSN Block Sequence Number (RLC) / Backward Sequence Number (SS7)

BSS Basic Service Set

BSS Base Station Subsystem

BSSAP Base Station Subsystem Application Part

BSSAP-LE Base Station System Application Part - Location Based Services Extension

BSSGP Base Station System GPRS Protocol

BSSID Basic Service Set Identification

BSSMAP Base Station Subsystem Mobile Application Part (3GTS 48.008)

BTAB Bluetooth Technical Advisory Board

BTC Block Turbo Coding

BTS Base Transceiver Station

BTTI Basic Transmission Time Interval

BU Bad Urban

BVCI BSSGP Virtual Connection Identifier

BW Bandwidth


C-SAP Control Service Access Point

C/I Carrier-to-Interference Ratio (like SNR)

C/N Carrier/Noise power ratio

C/R-Bit Command / Response Bit

C/T-Field logical Channel / Transport channel identification Field

CAI Channel Assignment Indicator

CAMEL Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic

CAN Connectivity Access Network

CAP Controlled Access Phase

CAP CAMEL Application Part (CCS7)

CAPEX Capital Expenditure

CAT Conditional Access Table (MPEG2-TS PSI)

CATV Cable TV

CAZAC Constant Amplitude Zero Autocorrelation Code



CB Control uplink Burst

CBC Committed Burst Size

CBC Cipher Block Chaining (DES-Operation Mode)

CBC Cell Broadcast Center

CBCH Cell Broadcast Channel (GSM)

CBMS Convergence of Broadcast and Mobile Services

CBPS Coded Bits per OFDM Symbol

CC Convolutional Coding

CC Call Control

CCC CPCH Control Command

CCCH Common Control Channel

CCF Charging Collection Function

CCH Control Channel

CCH-Q Control CHannel, QAM

CCIR601 Comit consultatif international pour la radio, a forerunner of the ITU-R, specification 601

CCITT Comitéonsultatif International Tégraphique et Téphonique (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee)

CCK Complementary Code Keying

CCK Common Cipher Key

CCM Common Channel Management (Protocol Part on the GSM Abis-Interface / 3GTS 48.058)

CCM CTR with CBC-MAC

CCM-Mode Counter with CBC-MAC (RFC 3610) Combined Authentication and Encryption with AES-Algorithm

CCMP CTR with CBC-MAC Protocol

CCN Cell Change Notification (related to Network Assisted Cell Change / 3GTS 44.060)

CCoA Collocated Care-of-Address

CCPCH Common Control Physical Channel (see also P-CCPCH and S-CCPCH)

CCS7 Common Channel Signaling System No. 7 (ITU-T Q-series of specifications, in particular Q.700 - Q.703)

CCTrCH Coded Composite Transport Channel (UMTS)

CCU Channel Codec Unit

CD Compact Disc

CD/CA-ICH Collision Detection / Channel Assignment Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

CDCH Control-plane Dedicated Channel (3GTS 45.902)

List of Acronyms


CDD Cyclic Delay Diversity

CDI Collision Detection Indicator

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

CDMA2000 The 3G Standard 3GPP2

CDR Call Detail Record

CELL_DCH RRC Dedicated State

CELL_FACH RRC FACH State in UTRA

CELL_PCH RRC PCH State in UTRA

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CEPT Conférence Européne des Postes et Técommunications

CESoP Circuit Emulation Services over Packet

CF Contention Free

CFI Control Format Indicator

CFN Connection Frame Number

CFP Contention Free Period

CG Charging Gateway

CGF Charging Gateway Function

CGI Cell Global Identification

CHAP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (RFC 1334)

CI Cell Identity

CIC Circuit Identity Code (ISUP)

CIC Call Instance Code (BICC)

CID Connection Identifier (WiMAX)

CID Channel Identity (ATM)

CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing (RFC 1519)

CIF Common Intermediate Format (352 x 240 pixels / ITU-T H261 / H263)

CINR Carrier to Interference and Noise Ratio

CIO Cell Individual Offset (3GTS 25.331)

CIP Common Indexing Protocol

CIR Committed Information Rate

CIR Channel Impulse Response

CIR Carrier-to-Interference Ratio

CK Ciphering Key (3GTS 33.102)

CKSN Ciphering Key Sequence Number

CL Controlled Load

CLCH Common Linearization CHannel



CLCH-Q Common Linearization CHannel, QAM

CMC Connection Mobility Control

CMC Codec Mode Command

CMCE Circuit Mode Control Entity

CmCH-PI Common Channel Priority Indicator

CMD Circuit Mode Data

CMI Codec Mode Indication

CMIP Client Mobile IP

CMIS/P Common Management Information System/Protocol

CMR Codec Mode Request

CMTS Cable Modem Termination System

CN Core Network

CNM Central Network Management

CNMI Central Network Management Interface

CNR Carrier to Noise Ratio

CoA Care of Address (MIP)

COA Change Over Acknowledge message (CCS7)

CODEC Coder-decoder

COFDM Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

COMSEC Communications Security

CON CONtinue Message (TCAP)

CONS Connection Orientated Network Service

COO Change Over Order message (CCS7)

COPS Common Open Policy Service Protocol (RFC 2748)

CORBA Common Object Request Broker

CoU Class of Usage

CP Cyclic Prefix

CP Control Physical channel

CP Contention Period

CPC Continuous Packet Connectivity

CPCH Common Packet Channel (UMTS Transport Channel) FDD only

CPCS Common Part Convergence Sublayer

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

CPICH Common Pilot Channel (UMTS Physical Channel / see also P-CPICH and S-CPICH)

CPICH_Ec/No Common Pilot Channel Energy per Chip to Noise Radio

CPIM Common Presence and Instant Messaging (RFC 3862)

List of Acronyms


CPS Common Part Sublayer

CPS Coding and Puncturing Scheme

CPTI Calling Party Type Identifier

CPU Central Processing Unit

CQI Channel Quality Indicator

CQICH Channel Quality Indicator Channel

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRC_HS CRC of High Speed Channel (HS-DSCH)

CRF Charging Rules Function

CRNC Controlling RNC

CRSC Contributing Source

CS Convergence Sublayer

CS Coding Scheme

CS Class Selector (DiffServ Term / RFC 2474)

CS Circuit Switched

CS-X Coding Scheme (1 - 4)

CSCF Call Session Control Function (SIP)

CSD Circuit Switched Data

CSG Closed Subscriber Group

CSI Channel State Information

CSICH CPCH Status Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

CSMA-CA Carrier-Sense Multiple Access - Collision Avoidance

CSN Connectivity Service Network

CSN.1 Code Syntax Notation 1 (3GTS 24.007)

CSPDN Circuit Switched Public Data Network

CSRC Synchronisation Source (RTP)

CSS Carrier Specific Signalling

CT Core Network and Terminal (Technical Specification Group within 3GPP)

CTC Convolutional Turbo Coding

CTCH Common Traffic Channel (Logical) PTM

CTFC Calculated Transport Format Combination (3GTS 25.331)

CTIA Cellular Telephone Industries Association

CTR Counter Mode

CTS Clear To Send

CUB Control Uplink Burst

CV Countdown Value



CV Constellation Version

CVO Clear Voice Override

CW Contention Window

CW Code Word

cwnd Congestion window

D-CT Downlink-Continuous Transmission

D-CTT Downlink-Carrier Timesharing Transmission

D-MCCTT Downlink - Main Control Channel Timesharing Transmission

D-TxAA Double Transmit Antenna Array

DA Destination Address

DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting

DARP Downlink Advanced Receiver Performance (3GTS 45.015, 3GTS 24.008)

DAS-X egprs2 Downlink level A modulation and coding Scheme (x = 5..12)

DASS Digital Access Signaling System

DBC Dynamic Bearer Control

dBm The unit dBm measures a power. The conversion of a power value from Watt [W] to dBm is done in the following way:X [dBm] = 10 x log10(X [W] / 0.001 [W])

DBP Diameter Base Protocol (RFC 3588)

DBPS Data Bits per OFDM Symbol

DBPSCH Dedicated Basic Physical SubCHannel

DBPSK Differential Binary or Bipolar Phase Shift Keying

DBS-X egprs2 Downlink level B modulation and coding Scheme (x = 5..12)

DC Direct Current

DCA Distributed Channel Access

DCCH Dedicated Control Channel

DCD Downlink Channel Descriptor (WiMAX Message)

DCF Distributed Coordination Function

DCF DRM Content Format

DCH Dedicated Channel (Transport)

DCI Downlink Control Indicator

DCK Derived Cipher Key

DCLA DC Level Adjustment

DCM Dedicated Channel Management (Protocol Part on the GSM Abis-Interface / 3GTS 48.058)

DCOMP Data COMpression Protocol

List of Acronyms


DCS Digital Communication System

DDDS Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (RFC 3401 - RFC 3404)

DDI Data Description Indicator (3GTS 25.309, 25.331, 25.321)

DEC Decision (COPS message type)

DELBA Delete Block Acknowledgment

DELTS Delete Traffic Stream

DEMUX De-Multiplexer

DES Data Encryption Standard

DF Do not Fragment (bit in IPv4 header)

DF Default Forwarding (DiffServ Term / RFC 2474)

DFS Dynamic Frequency Selection

DFT Discrete Fourier Transformation

DGNA Dynamic Group Number Assignment


DHCPv4 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Version 4 (RFC 2131)

DHCPv6 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Version 6 (RFC 3315)


DIAMETER Successor of the RADIUS protocol

DIFS Distributed (coordination function) InterFrame Space

Digit 4 bit

DIUC Downlink Interval Usage Code (WiMAX Term)

DL Downlink

DL-MAP Downlink-Medium Access Protocol (MAC-Message in WiMAX / IEEE 802.16)

DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel

DLCI Data Link Connection Identifier

DLFP Downlink Frame Prefix

DLL Data Link Layer

DLR Destination Local Reference (SCCP term)

DLS Downloadable Sounds

DLS Direct Link Setup

DMA Division Multiple Access

DMB Digital Multimedia Broadcasting

DMO Direct Mode Operation

DMR Digital Mobile Radio

DNS Domain Name System



DOCSIS Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (defined by CableLabs)

DoS Denial of Service attack

DPC Destination Point Code

DPCCH Dedicated Physical Control Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

DPCH Dedicated Physical Channel (UMTS / Term to combine DPDCH and DPCCH)

DPDCH Dedicated Physical Data Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

DPDCH_P DPDCH_Power or DPDCH_Pwr: Transmit power of DPDCH

DPNSS Digital Private Network Signaling System

DPSK Differential Phase Shift Keying

DQPSK Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

DQPSK Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

DR Data Rate

DRA Dynamic Resource Allocation

DRM Digital Rights Management

DRNC Drift Radio Network Controller

DRX Discontinuous Reception

DS Distribution System

DS-CDMA Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access

DSCA Diversity / Distributed Subcarrier Allocation

DSCH Downlink Shared Channel (UMTS Transport Channel)

DSCP Differentiated Services Code Pointer

DSL Digital Subscriber Line

DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer

DSM-CC Digital Storage Media Call Control

DSMIP Dual-Stack (IPv4/v6) Mobile IP

DSMIPv6 Dual Stack Mobile IPv6

DSN Digital Switching Network

DSP Digital Signal Processor

DSR Dual Symbol Rate

DSS Downlink sync Sequence Set

DSS Distribution System Set

DSS1 Digital Subscriber Signaling System No.1 (also referred to as LAPD-signaling / ITU-T Q.931)

DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

DT1 Data Form 1 (SCCP message type)

List of Acronyms


DTAP Direct Transfer Application Part

DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel

DTIM Delivery Traffic Indication Map

DTM Dual Transfer Mode [3GTS 43.055]

DTMB Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast

DTMF Dual Tone Multiple Frequency

DTS Decode Time Stamp

DTX Discontinuous Transmission

DUA DPNSS 1 / DASS 2 User Adaptation Layer (RFC 4129)

DVB Digital Video Broadcasting

DVB-C Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable TV

DVB-H Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld

DVB-S Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite

DVB-T Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial

E_UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Access

E-AGCH E-DCH Absolute Grant Channel

E-DCH Enhanced Uplink Dedicated Transport Channel (3GTS 25.211, 25.309)

E-DCH-FP E-DCH Frame Protocol (Enhanced Dedicated Channel)

E-DPCCH Enhanced Uplink Dedicated Physical Control Channel (3GTS 25.211)

E-DPDCH Enhanced Uplink Dedicated Physical Data Channel (3GTS 25.211)

E-GSM Extended GSM (GSM 900 in the Extended Band)

E-HICH E-DCH HARQ Acknowledgement Indicator Channel (3GTS 25.211)

E-OTD Enhanced Observed Time Difference

E-RGCH E-DCH Relative Grant Channel (3GTS 25.211)

E-RNTI E-DCH Radio Network Temporary Identifier (3GTS 25.401)

E-TFC E-DCH Transport Format Combination (3GTS 25.309)

E-TFCI E-DCH Transport Format Combination Identifier (Enhanced Dedicated Channel)

E-UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access


e2e End-to-End





EAP-FAST Extensible Authentication Protocol - Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling

EAP-SIM Extensible Authentication Protocol method for gsm Subscriber Identity Module (RFC 4186)

EAP-TLS Extensible Authentication Protocol - Transport Layer Security (RFC 2716)

EAP-TTLS Extensible Authentication Protocol - Transport Layer Security

EAPOL EAP encapsulation Over Lan or wlan (IEEE 802.1X)

eBM-SC Enhanced Broadcast and Multicast Service Center

Ec/No Received energy per chip / power density in the band

ECC Electronic Communications Committee

ECCH Extended Control CHannel


ECN Explicit Congestion Notification

ECSD Enhanced Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD + EDGE)

EDCA Enhanced Distributed Channel Access

EDCAF Enhanced Distributed Channel Access Function

EDGE Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution

EDR Enhanced Data Rate (more speed with Bluetooth 2.0 (2.0 - 3.0 Mbit/s)

EE Excellent Effort

EF Expedite Forwarding (DiffServ Term)

EFR Enhanced Full Rate speech codec

EGAN Evolved Generic Access Network

EGPRS Enhanced General Packet Radio Service

EGPRS2 Enhanced GPRS phase 2 [3GTS 43.064]

EGPRS2-A Enhanced GPRS Phase 2 Level A [3GTS 43.064, 3GTS 44.060]

EGPRS2-B Enhanced GPRS Phase 2 Level B [3GTS 43.064, 3GTS 44.060]

eHSPA Evolved HSPA

EIA Electronic Industries Alliance (US-organization to support US industry)

EIFS Extended InterFrame Space

EIR Equipment Identity Register

EIRENE European Integrated Railway Radio Enhanced Network (GSM-R)

EIRP Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power

EIT Event Information Table (MPEG, DVB-SI)

eMLPP enhanced Multi-Level Precedence and Pre-emption (3GTS 23.067)

List of Acronyms



EMSK Extended Master Session Key

EN European Norm

eNB Enhanced Node B

END END Message (TCAP)

ENUM E.164-telephone number to URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) translation (RFC 3761)

EOSP End Of Service Period



EPS Evolved Packet Switched

EPT ETSI Project TETRA

EQ200 Equalizer Test 200 km/h

ERO European Radiocommunications Office

ERP Extended Rate Physical Layer

ert-PS Extended Real-Time Polling Service (WiMAX Traffic Class)

ertPS Extended Real-Time Polling Service (IEEE 802.16 Traffic Class)

ES Elementary Stream

ES-Id Encoding Symbol-Id

Es/No Energy per symbol / Noise power spectral density

ESCR Elementary Stream Clock Reference

ESG Electronic Service Guide


ESN Electronic Serial Number (North American Market)


ESS Extended Service Set

Ethernet Layer 2 Protocol for IP (IEEE 802.3)

ETS European Telecommunication Standard

ETSI European Telecommunications Standard Institute

EUL Enhanced Uplink

EV-DO Evolution Data Only or Evolution Data Optimized (cdma2000)

EV-DV Evolution Data/Voice (cdma2000)

EVM Error Vector Magnitude

F-DPCH Fractional Dedicated Physical Channel (3GTS 25.211)

F-TEID Fully Qualified Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (3GTS 29.274)

FA Foreign Agent (Mobile IP / RFC 3344)

FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel (GSM)



FACH Forward Access Channel (UMTS Transport Channel)

FANR Fast Ack/Nack Reporting

FBI Final Block Indicator

FBI Feedback Information (UMTS)

FBSS Fast Base Station Switching

FCB Frequency Correction downlink burst

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FCCH Frequency Correction Channel (GSM)

FCH Frame Control Header

FCS Frame Check Sequence (CRC-Check)

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interconnect (optical Layer 2)

FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

FDPS Full-slot Downlink Pilots Set

FDT File Delivery Table

FEC Forward Error Correction

FER Frame Error Rate

FFH Fast Frequency Hopping

FFRS Fractional Frequency Reuse Scheme

FFS For Further Study

FFT Fast Fourier Transformation

FH Frequency Hopping

FH-CDMA Frequency Hopping Code Division Multiple Access

FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum

FIB Forward Indicator Bit

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standard

FiSA Filler Set A

FiSB Filler Set B

FISU Fill In Signal Unit

FLO Flexible Layer 1 (3GTS 45.902)

FLUTE File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (RFC 3926)

FM Frequency Modulation

FMC Fixed Mobile Convergence

FN Frame Number

FP Frame Protocol

List of Acronyms


FPB First Partial Bitmap

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name. Fully qualified domain names consist of a host and a domain name whereas the domain name needs to include a top-level domain (e.g. 'de' or 'org'). Examples: 'www.inacon.de' and 'PC10.inacon.com' are fully qualified domain names. 'www' and 'PC10' represent the host, 'inacon' is the second-level domain, 'de' and 'com' are the top level domain.

FR Fullrate or Frame Relay

FrCS Frequency Correction Set

FRMR Frame Reject

FRS Frequency Reuse Scheme

FSK Frequency Shift Key or Keying

FSN Forward Sequence Number

FTP File Transfer Protocol (RFC 959)

FUPS Full-slot Uplink Pilots Set

FUSC Full Usage of Subchannels

FWA Fixed Wireless Access

G-MSC Gateway MSC

G-PDU T-PDU + GTP-Header

G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identifier

GA Generic Access (3GTS 43.318)

GA-CSR Generic Access - Circuit-Switched Resources (3GTS 43.318)

GA-PSR Generic Access - Packet-Switched Resources (3GTS 43.318)

GA-RC Generic Access - Resource Control (3GTS 43.318)

GAA Generic Authentication Architecture (3GTS 33.220)

GAN Generic Access Network

GANC Generic Access Network Controller (3GTS 43.318)

GBA Generic Bootstraping Architecture (3GTS 33.220)

GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate

GCC Generic Call Control

GCF General Certification Forum

GCK Group Cipher Key

GEA GPRS Encryption Algorithm

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

GFSK Gaussian Frequency Shift Key or Keying

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

GHz Giga Hertz (109 Hertz)

GI Guard Interval



GIAT Group Identity Address Type

GIF Graphics Interchange Format

GITI Group Identify Type Identifier

GK Gatekeeper

GMK Group Master Key

GMLC Gateway Mobile Location Center

GMM GPRS Mobility Management

GMSC Gateway MSC

GMSC-S Gateway MSC Server

GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying

GNU recursive acronym for GNU is Not Unix. Today a synonym for free Sourcecode Software.

GOP Group of Pictures

GoS Grade of Service

GPCS Generic Packet Convergence Sublayer (IEEE 802.16)

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GPRS-CSI GPRS CAMEL Subscription Information

GPRS-SSF GPRS Service Switching Function (CAMEL)

GPS Global Positioning System

GRA GERAN Registration Area


GRX GPRS Roaming Exchange (GSM-Association IR.34)


GSM-R GSM for Railways

GSMS GPRS Short Message Service

GSN GPRS Support Node

GSSI Group Short Subscriber Identity

GTK Group Temporal Key

GTKSA Group Temporal Key Security Association


GTP-C GTP Control Plane

GTP-U GTP User Plane

GTSI Group TETRA Subscriber Identity

GTT Global Title Translation (ITU-T Q.714 (2.4))

GTTP GPRS Transparent Transport Protocol (3GTS 44.018)

GUMMEI Global Unique MME Identity

List of Acronyms


GUP Generic User Profile

GUTI Global Unique Terminal Identity

GW Gateway

GWCN GateWay Core Network configuration

GZIP GNU ZIP (compression format)

H-PLMN Home PLMN

H-RNTI HS-DSCH Radio Network Transaction Identifier (3GTS 25.331, 25.433)

HA Home Agent (Mobile IP / RFC 3344)

HARQ Hybrid ARQ

HB Heartbeat

HBDC Happy Bit Delay Condition (3GTS 25.309)

HBM Host Based Mobility

HC Hybrid Coordinator

HC-SDMA High Capacity - Spatial Division Multiple Access

HCCA HCF Controlled Channel Access

HCF Hybrid Coordination Function

HCS Hierarchical Cell Structure

HDB3 High Density Bipolar Three (Line Coding used for E1 (PCM 30)

HDLC High level Data Link Control

HDTV High Definition Television

HE Header Extension Field

HFC Hxbrid Fiber Cable (relates to the layer 1 of CableTV-operators)

HFC-Network Hybrid Fiber- / Coaxial-cable

HI HARQ Indicator

HIPERLAN/2 High Performance Radio Local Area Network type 2

HiperMAN High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network

HLR Home Location Register

HMAC Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication (RFC 2104)

HMIP Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (RFC 5380)

HO Handover

HoA Home Address

HOM Higher Order Modulation

HOMTC Higher Order Modulation and Turbo Coding

HOT Higher Order modulation and Turbo coding for downlink

HP High Priority Path (MPEG, DVB)



HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile radio Network

HR High Rate

HR Halfrate

HRPD High Rate Packet Data (cdma2000 term)

HS High Speed

HS-DPCCH High Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (3GTS 25.211)

HS-DSCH High Speed Downlink Shared Transport Channel (3GTS 25.211, 25.212, 25.308)

HS-HARQ High Speed Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HS-PDSCH High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel (3GTS 25.211)

HS-SCCH High Speed Shared Control Channel (3GTS 25.211, 25.214)

HSCSD High Speed Circuit Switched Data

HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access (3GTS 25.301, 25.308, 25.401, 3GTR 25.848)

HSGW HRPD Serving Gateway (cdma2000 term)


HSPA+ Enhanced High Speed Packet Access (operation of enhanced HSDPA and enhanced HSUPA)

HSR Higher Symbol Rate


HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access (3GTS 25.301, 25.309, 25.401, 3GTR 25.896)

HT High Throughput

HT200 Hilly Terrain 200 km/h

HTML Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol (RFC 2616)

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

HUGE Higher Uplink performance for Geran Evolution

HUMAN High-speed Unlicensed Metropolitan Area Network

HUPS Half-slot Uplink Pilots Set

HW Hardware

I-CSCF Interrogating Call Session Control Function (SIP)


I+S Information + Supervisory

IAM Initial Address Message (ISUP ISDN User Part)

IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IBS Integrated Base Station

List of Acronyms


IBSS Independent Basic Service Set

iBurst Data Communication Standards

IC Interference Cancellation

ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICH Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel / see also PICH, AICH, CD/CA-ICH)

ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination

ICM Initial Codec Mode

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol (RFC 792)


ICS Implementation Conformance Statement

ICS IMS Centralized Services (3GTR 22.892)

ICV Integrity Check Value

ID Identity

IDEA International Data Encryption Algorithm

IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transformation

IDNNS Intra-Domain NAS Node Selector

IE Information Element

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission


IETF Internet Engineering Task Force (www.ietf.org)

IF Intermediate Frequency

IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transformation

IFS InterFrame Space

IGMP Internet Group Multicast Protocol (RFC 1112, RFC 2236)

IHOSS Internet Hosted Octet Stream Service

IIR-Filter Infinite Impulse Response Filter

IK Integrity Key (3GTS 33.102)

IKE Internet Key Exchange (RFC 2409)


IKMP Internet Key Management Protocol

iLBC Internet Low Bitrate Codec (RFC 3951 / RFC 3952)

ILCM Incoming Leg Control Model

IM Instant Messaging

IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

IMEISV International Mobile Equipment Identity - amended by



Software Version number

IMM IMMediate access parameter

IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity; the private user identity of an IMS-subscriber, formatted as an NAI (3GTS 33.203)

IMPU IP Multimedia Public Identity; the public user identity of an IMS-subscriber, formatted as SIP-URI or TEL-URI (3GTS 33.203)


IMS-AG IMS-Access Gateway

IMS-SSF IP Multimedia Subsystem - Service Switching Function


IMT International Mobile Telecommunications

IMT-2000 International Mobile Telecommunications for the year 2000

IN Intelligent Networking

INAP Intelligent Network Application Part (CCS7)

INT IP-MAC Notification Table (DVB-H SI)

IOP Interoperability (of TETRA equipment)

IoT Interference over Thermal noise

IOV Input / Offset Variable [3GTS 44.064]

IOV-I / IOV-UI Input Offset Variable for I+S and UI-Frames (for ciphering in GPRS)


IP-CAN Internet Protocol - Connectivity Access Network (e.g. DSL, TV-Cable, WiMAX, UMTS)

IP-CS IP-Convergence Sublayer

IPBCP IP Bearer Control Protocol (ITU-T Q.1970)

IPCP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (RFC 1332)

IPDC IP Datacast

IPDV IP-packet delay variation (ITU-T Y.1540)

IPER IP-packet error ratio (ITU-T Y.1540)

IPLR IP-packet loss ratio (ITU-T Y.1540)

IPR Intellectual Property Rights


IPTD IP-packet transfer delay (ITU-T Y.1540)

IPTV Internet Protocol Television



IQ Inphase and Quadrature

List of Acronyms


IR Infra Red

IR Incremental Redundancy (ARQ II)

IS Interim Standard (ANSI Standard)

IS-95 Interim Standard - 95 (Qualcomm CDMA)

ISAKMP Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (RFC 2408)

ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISC IP multimedia subsystem Service Control-Interface

ISCP Interference Signal Code Power (3GTS 25.215 / 3GTS 25.102)

ISCTI Istituto Superiore delle Comunicazioni e delle Tecnologie dell'Informazione

ISDB Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISI Inter-System Interface

ISI Inter-Symbol Interference

ISIM IMS capable Subscriber Identity Module

ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical (term for license-free frequencies)

ISO International Standardization Organization

ISP Internet Service Provider

ISPC International Signaling Point Code (ITU-T Q.708)

ISSI Individual Short Subscriber Identity

ISUA ISDN User Adaptation Layer

ISUP ISDN User Part (ITU-T Q.761 - Q.765)

IT Information Technology

ITSI Individual TETRA Subscriber Identity

ITU International Telecommunication Union

ITU-R International Telecommunication Union - Radiocommunications

ITU-T International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Sector

Iu-FP Iu-Frame Protocol (3GTS 25.415)

IUA ISDN Q.921 User Adaptation Layer (RFC 4233)

Iub_HS Iub Interface with High Speed connection

Iub-FP Iub-Frame Protocol (3GTS 25.427 / 25.435)

Iur-FP Iur-Frame Protocol (3GTS 25.424, 3GTS 25.425, 25.426, 25.435)

IUT Implementation under Test



IV Initialization Vector

JD Joint Detection

JPEG Joint Picture Expert Group

kbps kilo-bits per second

KCK EAPOL Key Confirmation Key

KEK Key Encryption Key (IEEE 802.16)

KEK EAPOL Key Encryption Key

kHz Kilo Hertz (103 Hertz)

KMC Key Management Centres

KSG Key Stream Generator

L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)

L2 Layer 2 (data link layer)

L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (RFC 2661)

L3 Layer 3 (network layer)

LA Location Area

LA Link Adaptation

LAC Location Area Code

LACC Location Area Country Code

LAI Location Area Identification (LAI = MCC + MNC + LAC) [3GTS 23.003]

LAN Local Area Network

LANC Location Area Network Code

LAPB Link Access Procedure Balanced

LAPD Link Access Protocol for the ISDN D-Channel

LAPDm Link Access Protocol for the D-Channel / modified for the GSM air interface (3GTS 44.006)

LAPV5 Link Access Protocol for V5-interface

LATRED Latency Reduction (Work item within GERAN-Evolution)

LB Load Balancing

LB Linearization Burst

LBS Location Based Service

LCH Logical Channel (3GTS 25.321 MAC-ehs)

LCH-Q Linearization CHannel, QAM

LCID Logical Channel ID

LCMC-SAP Link entity Circuit Mode Control entity - Service Access Point

LCP Link Control Protocol (PPP)

List of Acronyms


LCR Low Chip Rate TDD

LCS LoCation Service

LCT Layered Coding Transport

LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (RFC 3928)

LDB Linearization Downlink Burst

LDPC Low Density Parity Check

LE Lower Effort PDB (DiffServ Term)

LEAP Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol

LED Light Emitting Diode

LER Label Edge Router (MPLS)

LEX Local Exchange Carrier

LI Length Indicator

LIP Location Information Protocol

LIP-SAP Location Information Protocol - Service Access Point

LLC Logical Link Control-Protocol

LLME Lower Layer Management Entity

LMA Local Mobility Anchor (RFC 5213)

LMDS Local Multipoint Distribution Services

LMM-SAP Link entity Mobility Management - Service Access Point

LMMSE Linear Minimum Mean Square Error receiver

LMU Location Measurement Unit

LNET ORF ATM Network

LNM Local Network Management

LOG10 Logarithm of basis 10

LOS Line Of Sight

LP Low Priority Path (MPEG, DVB)

LPC Linear Predictive Coding

LPD Link Protocol Discriminator

LR Location Register

LS Line Station

LSB Least Significant Bit

LSF Last Segment Flag

LSI Line Station Interface

LSP Label Switched Path (MPLS)

LSR Label Switch Router (MPLS)

LSSU Link Status Signal Unit




LTE_ACTIVE LTE State for active packet transmission

LTE_DETACHED LTE State for UE not being registered in the network

LTE_IDLE LTE State for non active packet transmission

LTF Long Training Field

LTPD-SAP Link entity TETRA Packet Data - Service Access Point

LUPR Last User Power Ratio

LZS Linearisation downlink Zeroed Set

M-bit More bit


M2PA MTP-2 user Peer-to-Peer Adaptation Layer (RFC 4165)



MAC Message Authentication Code


MAC-d Medium Access Control for the Dedicated Transport Channel (3GTS 25.321)

MAC-e MAC-E-DCH (3GTS 25.321)

MAC-ehs MAC-Evolved High Speed

MAC-es MAC-E-DCH SRNC (3GTS 25.321)

MAC-hs MAC-High Speed (3GTS 25.321)


MAN Metropolitan Area Network

MAP Mobile Application Part (3GTS 29.002)

MAP-B Mobile Application Part - B-interface protocol between MSC and VLR

MAP-X Mobile Application Part - various interface protocols like B-, C-, D-, E-, F- or G-interface

MAR Minimum to Average power Ratio

MASF Minimum Available Spreading Factor

Max [X, Y] The value shall be the maximum of X or Y, which ever is bigger

MBit Mega Bit

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast / Multicast Service (3GTS 23.246, 3GTS 43.846)

MBMS_RRC_CONNECTED

RRC state for E-MBMS in LTE

MBR Maximum Bit Rate

MBS Multicast Broadcast Services

List of Acronyms


MBSAT Mobile Broadcast Satellite

MBSFN MBMS Single Frequency Network

MBWA Mobile Broadband Wireless Access [IEEE 802.20]

MBZ Must Be Zero

MCC Mobile Country Code [ITU-T E.212]

MCCH Main Control CHannel

MCCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Control Channel

MCH Multicast Channel

MCM Minimum Control Mode

Mcps Mega Chip Per Second

MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme

MCS-X Modulation and Coding Scheme (1 - 9) and for HSDPA / HSUPA

MCU Multipoint Control Unit (H.323 equipment)

MD Message Digest algorithm (e.g. MD-5)

MD-X Message Digest Algorithm (MD-2, 4, 5 are defined) (MD-5 RFC 1321)

MDHO Macro-Diversity Handover

MDSR Modified Dual Symbol Rate

ME Mobile Equipment (ME + SIM = MS)

MEGACO Media Gateway Control Protocol (ITU-T H.248 incl. Annex F - H and IETF RFC 3015)

MELPe Mixed Excitation Linear Predictive

MER Message Erasure Rate

MEX Multimedia Exchange Layer

MExE Mobile Station Application Execution Environment

MGC Media Gateway Controller

MGCF Media Gateway Control Function

MGCK Modified Group Cipher key

MGCP Media Gateway Control Protocol (RFC 2705)

MGT MPEG PSI tables for ARIB

MGW Media Gateway

MHP Multimedia Home Platform

MHz Mega Hertz (106 Hertz)

MIB Master Information Block

MIB Management Information Base



MIC Message Integrity Code

MICH MBMS Notification Indicator Channel

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface

MIH Media Independent Handover (IEEE 802.21)

MII Ministry of Information Industry

MIKEY Multimedia Internet KEYing (RFC 3830)

MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

MIMO Multiple In / Multiple Out (antenna system)

MIN Mobile Identity Number (North American Market)

Min [X, Y] The value shall be the minimum of X or Y, which ever is smaller

MINA Mobile Internet Network Architecture

MIP Mobile IP (RFC 2002, 3344, 3775)


MISO Multiple In / Single Out (antenna system)

MitM Man in the Middle (attack)

MLD Multicast Listener Discovery (RFC 2710)

MLE Mobile Link Entity

MLME MAC Sublayer Management Entity

MLP MAC Logical Channel Priority

MLPP Multi-Level Precedence and Pre-emption (ITU-T Q.85 / Clause 3)

MM Mobility Management

MMCC Multimedia Call Control

MMD IP Multimedia Domain (name of the IMS in 3GPP2)

MMDS Multipoint Microwave Distribution System or Multi-channel Multi-point Distribution System


MMEC MME Code

MMEGI MME Group Identity

MMEI MME Identity

MMI Man-Machine-Interface

MMS Multimedia Messaging Service (3GTS 22.140, 3GTS 23.140)

MN Multiframe Number


MNI Mobile Network Identity

MNP Mobile Number Portability

List of Acronyms


MNRG Mobile Not Reachable for GPRS flag

MO Mobile station Originating

MOBIKE IKEv2 Mobility and Multihoming Protocol (RFC 4555)

MOC Mobile Originating Call

MOCN Multi-Operator Core Network

mod modulo (base for counting)

MOPS Million Operations Per second

MORE Modulation Order and symbol Rate Enhancement

MOS Mean Opinion Score

MP3 MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3

MPCC Multiparty Call Control

MPDU MAC Protocol Data Unit

MPE Multi Protocol Encapsulation (DVB-H)

MPEG Motion Picture Expert Group

MPEG2-TS MPEG-2 Transport Stream (DVB)

MPLS Multi Protocol Label Switching

MPN Monitoring Pattern Number

MPRACH MBMS Packet Random Access Channel ((E)GPRS)

MRC Maximum Ratio Combining

MRF Multimedia Resource Function

MRFC Multimedia Resource Function Controller

MRFP Multimedia Resource Function Processor

MRU Maximum Receive Unit (PPP)

MRW Move Receiving Window

MS Mobile Subscriber Station [IEEE 802.16]

MS Mobile Station

MS-ISDN Mobile Subscriber - International Service Directory Number

MS-PD Multislot Packet Data

MSB Most Significant Bit

MSC Mobile Services Switching Center

MSC-S MSC-Server

MSCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Scheduling Channel

MSDU MAC Service Data Unit

MSK Master Session Key

MSRD Mobile Station Receive Diversity

MSRN Mobile Station Roaming Number



MSRP Message Session Relay Protocol (draft-ietf-simple-message-sessions-XX)

MSS Maximum Segment Size (TCP)

MST Multiple Slot Transmission

MSU Message Signal Unit

MT Mobile Terminal or Mobile Terminating

MT0 Mobile station Termination type 0

MT2 Mobile station Termination type 2

MTBF Mean Time Between Failure

MTC Mobile Terminating Call

MTCH MBMS point-to-multipoint Traffic Channel

MTK MBMS Traffic Key

MTP Message Transfer Part (ITU-T Q.701 - Q.709)

MTP-3b Message Transfer Part level 3 / broadband (ITU-T Q.2210)

MTTR Mean Time To Repair

MTU Maximum Transmit Unit (IP)

MUD Multi-User-Detection unit

MUX Multiplex

MVNO Mobile Virtual Network Operator

N-PDU Network-Protocol Data Unit (IP-Packet, X.25-Frame)

N-SAW N-Channel Stop and Wait (3GTS 25.309, 3GTR 25.848)

N(R) Received SDU (TL-SDU) Number

N(S) Sent SDU (TL-SDU) Number

NACC Network Assisted Cell Change (3GTS 44.060)

NACK Negative Acknowledgement

NAF Network Application Function (part of the Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA))

NAI Network Access Identifier (RFC 2486)

NAP Network Access Provider

NAPT Network Address Port Translation (RFC 3022)

NAPTR Naming Authority Pointer (RFC 2915)


NASS Network Attachment SubSystem (part of the TISPAN NGN-architecture)


NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NAV Network Allocation Vector

List of Acronyms


NBAP NodeB Application Part (3GTS 25.433)


NBNS NetBios Name Service

NC Network Control

NC Network Connection

NC Neighbor Cell

NCC Network Color Code

NCM Normal Control Mode

NCP Network Control Protocol (PPP)

NDB Normal Downlink Burst

NDI New Data Indicator

NEMO Network Mobility (RFC 3963)

NGMN Next Generation Mobile Networks

NGN Next Generation Networks

NI Network Indicator

NIC Network Interface Card

NIT Network Information Table (MPEG2-TS PSI, DVB-SI)

NLOS Non Line Of Sight

NMS Network Management Subsystem

NMT Nordic Mobile Telephone (analog cellular standard, mainly used in Scandinavia)

NNI Network-to-Network Interface

NOM Network Operation Mode [3GTS 23.060]

NPB Next Partial Bitmap

NPM Non-Persistent Mode

NRA National Regulatory Administration

NRI Network Resource Identifier

NS Network Service

NS-VC Network Service - Virtual Connection

NS-VCG Network Service - Virtual Connection Group

NS-VL Network Service - Virtual Link

NSAP Network Service Access Point

NSAPI Network Service Access Point Identifier

NSE Network Service Entity

NSF NAS Node Selection function

NSIS Next Steps in Signaling (RFC 4080)

NSLP NSIS Signaling Layer Protocol (e.g. for resource reservation)



NSP Network Service Provider

NSPC National Signaling Point Code

NSR Normal Symbol Rate

NSS Network Switching Subsystem

NT Network Termination

NTSC National Television System Committee (video standard for North America)

NUB Normal Uplink Burst

NWG Network Working Group (WiMAX Forum)

O-bit Optional bit

O&M Operation and Maintenance

OCNS Orthogonal Channel Noise Simulator

Octet 8 bit

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OFUSC Optional FUSC (Full Usage of Subchannels)

OLCM Outgoing Leg Control Model

OMA Open Mobile Alliance (http://www.openmobilealliance.org/)

OMAC One-Key CBC-MAC (NIST standard: SP 800-38B and http://csrc.nist.gov/CryptoToolkit/modes/proposedmodes/)

OMAP Operation & Maintenance Application Part

OMC Operation and Maintenance Center

OoBTC Out of Band Transcoder Control (3GTS 23.153)

OOK On OFF Keying

OP Optional

OPC Originating Point Code

OPEX Operational Expenditure

OPUSC Optional PUSC (Partial Usage of Subchannels)

OPWA One Pass With Advertising (Term in RSVP)

ORF Oesterreichischer Rundfunk

OSA Open Service Access

OSA-SCS Open Service Access - Service Capability Server

OSCP Online Certificate Status Protocol (RFC 2560)

OSI Open System Interconnection

OSP Octet Stream Protocol

OSPF Open Shortest Path First

OTAR Over The Air Re-keying

List of Acronyms


OTDOA Observed Time Difference Of Arrival

OVSF Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor

P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel (UMTS / used as bearer for the BCH TrCH)

P-CPICH Primary Common Pilot Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

P-CSCF Proxy Call Session Control Function (SIP)


P-SCH Primary Synchronization Channel

P-TMSI Packet TMSI

p/4-DQPSK p/4-shifted Differential Quaternary Phase Shift Keying

p/8-D8PSK p/8-shifted Differential 8 Phase Shift Keying

P/F-Bit Polling/Final - Bit

P/S Parallel to Serial

PA Presence Agent (RFC 3856)

PA Power Amplifier

PA Pedestrian A mobile radio channel

PABX Private Automatic Branch Exchange

PAC Protected Access Credential

PACCH Packet Associated Control Channel ((E)GPRS)

PACQ Probability of synchronization burst ACQuisition

PACS Personal Access Communication System

PAD Packet Assembly Disassembly

PAGCH Packet Access Grant Channel ((E)GPRS)

PAL Phase Alternating Line (TV Norm)

PAMR Public Access Mobile Radio

PAN Piggybacked Ack/Nack

PAP Password Authentication Protocol (RFC 1334)

PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio

PAR Peak to Average power Ratio

PAT Program Assocation Table (MPEG2-TS)

PB Pedestrian B mobile radio channel

PBCC Packet Binary Convolutional Code

PBCCH Packet Broadcast Control Channel ((E)GPRS)

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

PBS Peak Burst Size

PC Protocol Control

PC Protocol Class (SCCP)



PC Power Control

PC Point Coordinator

PC Personal Computer

PC Paging Controller

PCC Policy and Charging Control (3GTS 23.203)

PCCC Parallel Concatenated Convolutional Code (possible Turbo Coding Scheme)

PCCCH Packet Common Control Channel ((E)GPRS)

PCCH Paging Control Channel


PCF Point Coordination Function

PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel

PCH Paging Channel

PCI Precoding Control Indication

PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect (computer bus standard to interconnect peripherals to the CPU)

PCM Pulse Code Modulation

PCN Personal Communication Network

PCOMP Protocol COMpression Protocol

PCPCH Physical Common Packet Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

PCR Program Clock Reference (MPEG)


PCS Personal Communication System

PCU Packet Control Unit

PD Protocol Discriminator

PD Packet Data

PDA Personal Digital Assistant

PDB Per Domain Behavior (DiffServ Term)

PDB Packet Delay Budget

PDBF Profile DataBase Function (TISPAN term / ETSI ES 282 004)

PDC Personal Digital Communication (ARIB-Standard)

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDCH Packet Data Channel


PDF Probability Density Function

PDF Policy Decision Function (Part of the IP Multimedia Subsystem)

PDG Packet Data Gateway

List of Acronyms


PDH Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy



PDO Packet Data Optimised

PDP Packet Data Protocol

PDS Power Density Spectrum

PDS Packet Data Subsystem (3GPP2)

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PDSN Packet Data Support Node (the SGSN in 3GPP2)

PDTCH Packet Data Traffic Channel ((E)GPRS)


PEAP Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol

PEI Peripheral Equipment Interface

PEP Policy Enforcement Point (3GTS 23.209)

PER Packed Encoding Rules (ITU-T X.691)

PES Packetised Elementary Stream (DVB)

PES PSTN/ISDN Emulation Subsystem (part of the TISPAN NGN-architecture)

PFC Packet Flow Context

PFI Packet Flow Identifier

PG Processing Gain: 10 * LOG10 (3.84 Mcps / user_data_rate)

PHB Per Hop Behavior (DiffServ Term)

PhCH Physical Channel

PHICH Physical HARQ Acknowledgement Indicator Channel

PHS Personal Handy phone System

PHS Payload Header Suppression (IEEE 802.16)

PHY Physical Layer

PHz Peta Hertz (1015 Hertz)

PI Priority Indicator

PI Paging Indicator

PICH Page Indicator Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

PICMG PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (http://www.picmg.org/)

PICS Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement

PID Packet Identifier (MPEG2-TS)

PIDF Presence Information Data Format (RFC 3863)

PIFS Point (coordination function) InterFrame Space



PIN Personal Identification Number

PIR Peak Information Rate

PIXIT Protocol Implementation Extra Information for Testing

PKCS Public Key Cryptography Standard

PKI Public Key Infrastructure

PKMv2 Privacy Key Management Version 2

PL Puncturing Limit (3GTS 25.212)

PL Physical Layer

PL-SAP Packet link Layer Service Access Point

PLC Power Line Communications

PLCP Physical Layer Convergence Procedure

PLmax E-DCH maximum Puncturing Limit (3GTS 25.212)

PLME Physical Layer Management Entity


PLnon-max Puncturing Limit not requiring maximum physical channels (3GTS 25.212)

PLR Packet Loss Rate

PLW PDSU Length Word

PMCH Physical Multicast Channel

PMD Physical Medium Dependent

PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator



PMK Pairwise Master Key

PMKID Pairwise Master Key Identity

PMKSA Pairwise Master Key Security Association

PMM Packet Mobility Management

PMR Professional Mobile Radio

PMR Private Mobile Radio

PMT Program Map Table (MPEG2-TS)

PMTU Path MTU

PN Pseudo Noise

PN Packet Number

PNCH Packet Notification Channel ((E)GPRS)

PNG Portable Network Graphics

PO Power Offset

PoC Push to talk over Cellular (3GTR 29.979 and various OMA-

List of Acronyms


specifications)

PoE Power over Ethernet

POP Post Office Protocol (RFC 1939)

POP3 Post Office Protocol version 3

POTS Plain Old Telephone Service

PPCH Packet Paging Channel ((E)GPRS)

PPDU PLCP Protocol Data Unit

PPM Pulse Position Modulation

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol (RFC 1661)

PRA PCPCH Resource Availability

PRACH Physical Random Access Channel

PRACH Packet Random Access Channel

PRACK Provisional Response Acknowledgement (SIP-method type)

PRD Bluetooth Qualification Program Reference Document

PRF Pseudo Random Function

PRI Primary rate access ISDN-user interface for PABX's (23 or 30 B-channels plus one D-Channel)

PRNG Pseudo Random Number Generator

PS Puncturing Scheme

PS Program Stream

PS Power Save

PS Physical Slot (IEEE 802.16)

PS Packet Switched

PSC Primary Synchronization Code or Primary Scrambling Code (both used in UMTS)

PSD Power Spectral Density (3GTS 25.215 / 3GTS 25.102)

PSDU PLCP Service Data Unit

PSF PLCP Signaling Field

PSI Program Specific Information (MPEG2-TS)

PSIP MPEG PSI tables for ARIB, similar to DVB-PSI

PSK Preshared Key

PSK Phase Shift Keying

PSPDN Packet Switched Public Data Network

PSS 1 Private integrated Signalling System No. 1

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

PT Protocol Type (GTP or GTP')

PTCCH Packet Timing Advance Control Channel ((E)GPRS)



PTCCH/D Packet Timing Advance Control Channel / Downlink Direction ((E)GPRS)

PTCCH/U Packet Timing Advance Control Channel / Uplink Direction ((E)GPRS)

PTK Pairwise Transient Key

PTKSA Pairwise Transient Key Security Association

PTM Point to Multipoint

PTP Point to Point

PTS Presentation Time Stamp

PTT Post, Telephone & Telegraph (abbreviation for the former government owned organizations that were responsible for all three services)

PUA Presence User Agent (RFC 3856)

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PUEM Probability of Undetected Erroneous Message

PUSC Partial Usage of Subchannels

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

PVC Permanent Virtual Circuit

QAM n symbols Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (n = 16, 32, 64, ...)

QAP QoS Assess Point

QBSS Quality of Service Basic Service Set


QCIF Quarter Common Intermediate Format (176 x 144 pixels ITU-T H261 / H263)

QE Quality Estimate


QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

QSIG Q-interface signaling protocol

QSTA Quality of Service Station

R-GSM Railways-GSM

RA Routing Area

RA Registered Area

RA Receive Address

RA-RNTI Random Access - Radio Network Temporary Identifier

RAA RE-Auth-Answer command (Diameter BASE, RFC 3588)

RAB Random Access uplink Burst

RAB Radio Access Bearer

RAC Routing Area Code

List of Acronyms


RAC Radio Admission Control

RACC Routing Area Color Code [3GTS 44.018 (10.5.2.34)]

RACH Random Access Channel

RACS Resource and Admission Control Subsystem (part of the TISPAN NGN-architecture)

RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RFC 2865)

RAI Routing Area Identification

RAM Random Access Memory

RAN Radio Access Network

RANAP Radio Access Network Application Part (3GTS 25.413)

RAND Random Number

RAR RE-Auth-Request command (Diameter BASE, RFC 3588)


RATSCCH Robust AMR Traffic Synchronized Control CHannel

RB Resource Block

RB Receive Block Bitmap (EGPRS)

RB Radio Bearer

RBB Receive Block Bitmap (GPRS)

RBC Radio Bearer Control

RBPSCH Shared Basic Physical SubCHannel

RC4 Rivest Cipher 4

RCPC Rate Compatible Punctured Convolutional

RDC Radio Downlink Counter

RDC-NC Radio Downlink Counter - Non Conforming channel

RDC-Q Radio Downlink Counter, QAM

RED Random Early Detection

RED REduced symbol Duration

REJ Reject

REQ Request (COPS message type)

RES Response

RF Radio Frequency


RFID Radio Frequency Identification

RG Relative Grant (3GTS 25.309)

RIP Routing Information Protocol

RL Radio Link (3GTS 25.433)



RL-TBF Reduced Latency Temporary Block Flow [3GTS 43.064]


RLM Radio Link Management (Protocol Part on the GSM Abis-Interface / 3GTS 48.058)

RLP Radio Link Protocol (3GTS 24.022)

RLS Radio Link Set (3GTS 25.309, 25.433)

RM Reed-Muller

RM Rate Matching

RMS Root Mean Square


RNL Radio Network Layer

RNR Receive Not Ready

RNS Radio Network Subsystem

RNSAP Radio Network Subsystem Application Part (3GTS 25.423)

RNSN Radio Network Serving Node

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier


ROHC Robust Header Compression

ROI Return On Invest

Roope53vISO International Organization for Standardization

RoT Rise over Thermal (interference rise relative to zero load)

RPE/LTP Regular Pulse Excitation / Long Term Prediction (Speech Codec)

RPID Rich Presence Information Data

RPLMN Registered PLMN

RPR Resilient Packet Ring (IEEE 802.17)

RR Receive Ready (LAPD/LLC/RLP-Frame Type)

RR Radio Resource Management

RRA Radio Resource Agent

RRBP Relative Reserved Block Period


RRC_CONNECTED RRC state in E-UTRA

RRC_IDLE RRC state

RRC_MBMS_CONNECTED

RRC state in E-UTRA for UEs with MBMS service only

RRC-Filter Root Raised Cosine Filter

RRLP Radio Resource LCS Protocol

List of Acronyms


RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSA Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman-algorithm (Public Key Encryption / PKCS #1)

RSADP RSA-Decryption Primitive (RFC 3447 (5.1.2) or PKCS #1 (5.1.2); PKCS = Public Key Cryptography Standard)

RSAEP RSA-Encryption Primitive (RFC 3447 (5.1.1) or PKCS #1 (5.1.1); PKCS = Public Key Cryptography Standard)

RSAES-OAEP RSA Encryption Scheme - Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding (PKCS #1 / RFC 3447)

RSC Recursive Systematic Convolutional Coder (Turbo Coding, 25.212)

RSCP Received Signal Code Power (3GTS 25.215)

RSN Retransmission Sequence Number (3GTS 25.309, 25.212)

RSNA Robust Security Network Association

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RST Running Status Table (DVB-SI)

RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

RSVP Resource Reservation Protocol (RFC 2205)

RT Real Time

RTCM Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services

RTCP Real-time Transport Control Protocol

RTG Receive transmit Transition Gap (IEEE 802.16 (3.45)) the time between an uplink subframe and the subsequent downlink subframe in a TDD-system

RTO Retransmission Time Out


RTP/AVP Real-time Transport Protocol / Audio Video Profile (RFC 3551) (used in SDP-descriptions)

RTP/AVPF Real-time Transport Protocol / extended Audio Video Profile for rtcp Feedback (used in SDP-descriptions)(draft-ietf-avt-rtcp-feedback-11.txt)

RTP/SAVP Real-time Transport Protocol / Secure Audio Video Profile (RFC 3711) (used in SDP-descriptions)

RTS Request To Send

RTSP Real Time Streaming Protocol (RFC 2326)

RTT Round Trip Time

RTTI Reduced Transmission Time Interval



RTTVAR Round Trip Time Variation

RTWP Received Total Wideband Power

RUIM Removable User Identity Module

RV Redundancy and Constellation Version (3GTS 25.212)

Rx Receive(r)

RX Receive

S-CCPCH Secondary Common Control Physical Channel (used as bearer for the FACH and PCH TrCH's / UMTS Physical Channel)

S-CPICH Secondary Common Pilot Channel (UMTS Physical Channel)

S-CSCF Serving Call Session Control Function (SIP)


S-SCH Secondary Synchronization Channel (physical)

S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

S(R) Received segment Sequence number

S(S) Sent segment Sequence number

S/P Serial to Parallel


SA System Architecture

SA Source Address

SA Service Area

SA Security Association

SAAL-NNI Signaling ATM Adaptation Layer - Network Node Interface

SAB Service Area Broadcast

SABM(E) Set Asynchronous Balanced Mode (Extended for Modulo 128 operation) (LAPD/LLC/RLP-Frame Type)

SABP Service Area Broadcast Protocol (3GTS 25.419)

SACCH Slow Associated Control Channel (GSM)

SACCH/MD SACCH Multislot Downlink (related control channel of TCH/FD/GSM)

SACK Selective Acknowledgement


SAI Service Area Identifier

SAIC Single Antenna Interference Cancellation

SANC Signaling Area Network Code (ITU-T Q.708)

SAP Service Access Point

SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

SAR Specific Absorption Rate

List of Acronyms


SAR Segmentation And Reassembly (ATM-sublayer)

SAT Satellite

SAW Stop and Wait Machine

SB Synchronization downlink Burst

SB Scheduling Block

SBC Session Border Controller (SIP term, usually a B2BUA with NAT-function and media gateway)

SBLP Service Based Local Policy

SBN Source Block Number

SBPSCH Shared Basic Physical SubCHannel

SC Subcarrier

SC Serving Cell

SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

SCCH Secondary Control CHannel

SCCP Signaling Connection Control Part (ITU-T Q.711 - Q.714)

SCF Service Control Function (CAMEL)

SCH Synchronization Channel

SCH Signalling CHannel

SCH-P8/F Signalling CHannel, pi/8-D8PSK, Full size

SCH-P8/HD Signalling CHannel, pi/8-D8PSK, Half size Downlink

SCH-P8/HU Signalling CHannel, pi/8-D8PSK, Half size Uplink

SCH-Q Signalling CHannel, QAM

SCH-Q/D Signalling CHannel, QAM Full size Downlink

SCH-Q/HU Signalling CHannel, QAM Half size Uplink

SCH-Q/RA Signalling CHannel, QAM Random Access Uplink

SCH-Q/U Signalling CHannel, QAM Full size Uplink

SCH/F Signalling CHannel, Full size

SCH/HD Signalling CHannel, Half size Downlink

SCH/HU Signalling CHannel, Half size Uplink

SCK Static Cipher Key

SCLNS Specific ConnectionLess Network Service

SCN Switching Control Node

SCP Service Control Point (IN)

SCR Source Controlled Rate


SD Sample Duration

SDCCH Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel



SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

SDK Software Development Kit

SDMA Space Division Multiple Access


SDS Short Data Service

SDT Service Description Table (DVB-SI)

SDTI Short Date Type Identifier

SDTV Standard Definition TV

SDU Service Data Unit (the payload of a PDU)

SEG Security Gateway

SEP Signaling End Point (CCS7)

SF Spreading Factor

SF Slot Flag

SFBC Space Frequency Block Codes

SFD Start Frame Delimiter

SFH Slow Frequency Hopping

SFID Service Flow Identity

SFN System Frame Number

SFN Single Frequency Network

SFPG Security and Fraud Prevention Group

SG Serving Grant respectively Power Grant (3GTS 25.213, 25.309, 25.321)

SG Security Gateway (IPsec / RFC 2401)

SGCP Simple Gateway Control Protocol

SGi Reference Point in LTE

SGLUPR Last Used Power Ratio according to SG table index (3GTS 25.321)


SGW Signaling Gateway

SHA Secure Hash Algorithm

SHCCH Shared Channel Control Channel (UMTS Logical Channel / TDD only)

SHO Soft Handover (UE is having more than one radio link at the same time and combines them)

SI Service Information

SI Service Indicator

SI Segment Indicator

SI Scheduling Info

List of Acronyms


SIB System Information Block

SIB LSSU with status indication busy

SIC Serial Interference Cancellation

SICH-Q Slot Information CHannel, QAM

SICH-Q/D Slot Information CHannel, QAM Downlink

SICH-Q/U Slot Information CHannel, QAM Uplink

SID Size InDex (3GPP 25.321)

SID Silence Insertion Descriptor

SIE LSSU with status indication emergency alignment

SIF Signaling Information Field

SIFS Short InterFrame Space

SIG Special Interest Group (e.g. Bluetooth)

SIGQ Signaling Queue

SIGTRAN Signaling Transport (RFC 2719)

SIM Subscriber Identity Module

SIMO Single In / Multiple Out (antenna system)

SIN LSSU with status indication normal alignment

SIO Service Information Octet

SIO LSSU with status indication out of alignment

SIOS LSSU with status indication out of service

SIP Session Initiation Protocol (RFC 3261)

SIP-AS SIP-Application Server

SIP-B SIP for Businesses (abbreviation for a set of PABX-specific SIP-extensions)

SIP-I SIP with encapsulated ISUP (ITU-T Q.1912.5)

SIP-T SIP for Telephones (RFC 3372, RFC 3398)

SIPO LSSU with status indication processor outage

SIQ Service Information Query

SIR Signal to Interference Ratio

SISO Single In / Single Out (antenna system)

SLA Service Level Agreement

SLC Signaling Link Code

SLF Subscriber Locator Function

SLR Source Local Reference

SLS Signaling Link Selection

SLTA Signaling Link Test Acknowledge

SLTM Signaling Link Test Message



SM Session Management (3GTS 23.060, 3GTS 24.008)

SM-SC Short Message Service Center

SME Station Management Entity

SME Small and Medium size Enterprises (Type of Business)

SMG Special Mobile Group

SMI Short Management Identity

SMIL Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language

SMKSA Station to Station link Master key Security Association

SMLC Gateway Mobile Location Center

SMS Short Message Service (3GTS 24.011, 3GTS 23.040)

SMS-G-MSC SMS Gateway MSC (for Short Messages destined to Mobile Station)

SMS-IW-MSC SMS Interworking MSC (for Short Messages coming from Mobile Station)

SMSCB Short Message Services Cell Broadcast

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (RFC 2821)

SN Symbol Number or SNDCP

SN Sequence Number

SN-PDU Segmented N-PDU (SN-PDU is the payload of SNDCP)

SN-Q Symbol Number in QAM

SN-SAP SNDCP-Service Access Point

SNA Short Number Address

SND Sequence Number Downlink (GTP)

SNDCP Subnetwork Dependent Convergence Protocol

SNEI SNDCP Network Endpoint Identifier

SNIR Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio

SNM Signaling Network Management Protocol (ITU-T Q.704 (3))

SNN SNDCP N-PDU Number Flag

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

SNTM Signaling Network Test & Maintenance (ITU-T Q.707)

SNTP Simple Network Time Protocol (RFC 2030)

SNU Sequence Number Uplink (GTP)

SO Segment Offset

SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol (http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-SOAP-20000508)

SOHO Small Office Home Office (Type of Business)

SP Signaling Point

List of Acronyms


SPC Signaling Point Code

SPI Security Parameter Index (RFC 2401)


SQCIF Semi Quarter Common Intermediate Format (128 x 96 pixels ITU-T H261 / H263)

SQN Sequence number (used in UMTS-security architecture / 3GTS 33.102)

SRB Signaling Radio Bearer

SRES Signed Response

SRF Service Resource Function (CAMEL)

SRNC Serving Radio Network Controller

SRNS Serving Radio Network Subsystem

SRS Sounding Reference Symbol

SRTP Secure RTP (RFC 3711)

SRTT Smoothed RoundTrip Time

SRV Service Location (DNS-related / RFC 2782)

SRVCC Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (3GTS 23.216)

SS Supplementary Service

SS Subscriber Station (IEEE 802.16)

SS Spatial Stream

SS7 Signaling System No 7

SSC Secondary Synchronization Code

SSCF Service Specific Co-ordination Function

SSCF/NNI Service Specific Coordination Function - Network Node Interface Protocol (ITU-T Q.2140)

SSCF/UNI Service Specific Coordination Function - User Network Interface Protocol (ITU-T Q.2130)

SSCOP Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol (ITU-T Q.2110)

SSCOPMCE Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol in a Multi-link or Connectionless Environment (ITU-T Q.2111)

SSCS Service Specific Convergence Sublayer

SSDT Site Selection Diversity Transmission

SSF Service Switching Function (CAMEL)

SSI Short Subscriber Identity

SSID Service Set Identifier (IEEE 802.11)

SSN SubSlot Number

SSN Start Sequence Number (related to ARQ-Bitmap in GPRS / EGPRS) or Send Sequence Number (GSM MM and CC-Protocols) or Sub-System Number (SCCP)



SSN Send Sequence Number (GSM MM and CC-Protocols)

SSP Service Switching Point (IN)

SSRC Contributing Source (RTP)

SSRTG Subscriber Station Receive to transmit Turnaround Gap (IEEE 802.16 (3.53)) Time that the SS needs to switch from receive to transmit.

SSS Secondary sync Sequence Set

SSSAR Service Specific Segmentation And Reassembly (ITU-T I.366.1)

ssthresh Slow start threshold (RFC 2001, RFC 2960)

SSTTG Subscriber Station Transmit to receive Turnaround Gap (IEEE 802.16 (3.54)) Time that the SS needs to switch from transmit to receive.

SSVE Sum Square Vector Error

ST Stuffing Table (DVB-SI)

STA Station

STAkey Station Key

STAkeySA Station Key Security Association

STANAG Standardisation Agreement (NATO)

STBC Space Time Block Coding

STC Space Time Coding

STC Signaling Transport Converter on MTP-3 and MTP-3b (ITU-T Q.2150.1) / Signaling Transport Converter on SSCOP and SSCOPMCE (ITU-T Q.2150.2)

STCH STealing CHannel

STF Short Training Field

STP Signaling Transfer Point

STS Space Time Stream

STTD Space Time block coding based Transmission Diversity

STUN Simple Traversal of UDP through Network Address Translators (RFC 3489)

SU Scheduling Unit

SUA SCCP User Adaptation Layer (RFC 3868)

SUERM Signal Unit Error Rate Monitor (ITU-T Q.703 (10))

SUFI Super Field (RLC-Protocol)

SUN Originally stood for Stanford University Network

SVC Switched Virtual Circuit

SVG Scalable Vector Graphics

SW Software

List of Acronyms


SWAP Shared Wireless Access Protocol (Home RF)

SwMI Switching and Management Infrastructure

SYNC Synchronization protocol in LTE for E-MBMS

T-PDU Payload of a G-PDU which can be user data, i.e. possibly segmented IP-frames, or GTP signaling information (GTP)

T.38 Fax Specification

TA Transmitter Address

TA Tracking Area

TA Timing Advance

TA Terminal Adapter (ISDN)

TAC Tracking Area Code

TACS Total Access Communication System

TAF Terminal Adopter Function (3GTS 27.001)

TAI Timing Advance Index

TB Transport Block

TBCP Talk Burst Control Protocol

TBF Temporary Block Flow

TBS Transport Block Set

TC Turbo Coding (3GTS 25.212)

TC Technical Committee

TCAP Transaction Capabilities Application Part (Q.771 - Q.773)

TCB Transmission Control Block

TCH Traffic Channel

TCH-AFS Traffic CHannel Adaptive Full rate Speech

TCH-AHS Traffic Channel Adaptive Half rate Speech

TCH-P8/10,8 Traffic CHannel, pi/8-D8PSK, net rate = 10,8 kbit/s

TCH/2,4 Traffic CHannel, net rate = 2,4 kbit/s



TCH/FD Traffic Channel / Fullrate Downlink

TCH/S Speech Traffic CHannel


TCP/BFCP Transmission Control Protocol / Binary Floor Control Protocol (draft-ietf-xcon-bfcp-05.txt)

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol over IP

TCP/RTP/AVP Real-time Transport Protocol / Audio Video Profile over TCP (used in SDP-descriptions)(draft-ietf-avt-rtp-framing-contrans-06.txt)



TCP/TLS/BFCP Transmission Control Protocol / Transport Layer Security / Binary Floor Control Protocol (draft-ietf-xcon-bfcp-05.txt)

TCTF Target Channel Type Field

TCTV Transport Channel Traffic Volume

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDM Time Division Multiplexing

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TDOA Time Difference of Arrival

TDT Time and Date Table (DVB-SI)

TE Terminal Equipment

TE2 TE presenting a TETRA interface

TEA1/2/3/4 TETRA Encryption Algorithm(s) 1,2,3 and 4

TEBS Total E-DCH Buffer Status

TEDS TETRA Enhanced Data Service

TEI Terminal Equipment Identity

TEID Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (GTP / 3GTS 29.060)

TEK Traffic Encryption Key (IEEE 802.16)

Term Explanation

TETRA Terrestrial Trunked Radio

TETRA V+D TETRA Voice + Data

TF Transport Format

TFC Transport Format Combination

TFCI Transport Format Combination Identifier

TFCS Transport Format Combination Set

TFI Transport Format Indication (UMTS)

TFI Temporary Flow Identity ((E)GPRS)

TFO Tandem Free Operation (3GTS 22.053)

TFRC Transport Format and Resource Combination (3GTS 25.308)

TFRI Transport Format and Resource Indicator (3GTS 25.308, 25.321)

TFS Transport Format Set


TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol (RFC 1350)

TGD Transmission Gap start Distance (3GTS 25.215)

TGL Transmission Gap Length (3GTS 25.215)

TGPRC Transmission Gap Pattern Repetition Count (3GTS 25.215)

TGSN Transmission Gap Starting Slot Number (3GTS 25.215)

List of Acronyms


TH-CDMA Time Hopping Code Division Multiple Access

THIG Topology Hiding Inter Network Gateway

THP Traffic Handling Priority (DiffServ Term)

THz Tera Hertz (1012 Hertz)

TI Transaction Identifier

TIA Telecommunications Industry Association

TID Tunnel Identifier

TID Traffic Identifier

TIM Traffic Indication Map

TIP TETRA Interoperability Profile

TIPHON Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks (ETSI Project)

TISPAN Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks (ETSI Working Group to define IMS for fixed broadband access networks)

TK Temporal Key

TKIP Temporal Key Integrity Protocol

TL TETRA LLC

TLA-SAP TETRA LLC Service Access Point A

TLB-SAP TETRA LLC Service Access Point B

TLC-SAP TETRA LLC Service Access Point C

TLE-SAP TETRA LLC Service Access Point E

TLLI Temporary Logical Link Identifier

TLS Transport Layer Security (RFC 2246 / RFC 3546 / formerly known as SSL or Secure Socket Layer)

TLV Tag / Length / Value Notation

TM Trunked Mode

TM Transparent Mode operation

TM Transmission Modules

TM TETRA MAC

TMA-SAP TETRA MAC Service Access Point A

TMB-SAP TETRA MAC Service Access Point B

TMC-SAP TETRA MAC Service Aaccess Point C

TMD Transparent Mode Data (UMTS RLC PDU-type)

TMD-SAP TETRA MAC Service Aaccess Point D

TMGI Temporary Mobile Group Identity (3GTS 23.003 (15.2))

TMN Telecommunication Management Network




TMV-SAP TETRA MAC Virtual SAP

TN Timeslot Number

TNCC-SAP TETRA Network layer Call Control - Service Access Point

TNL Transport Network Layer (3GTS 25.401)

TNMM TETRA Network Mobility Management

TNP TETRA Network Protocol

TNSDS-SAP TETRA Network layer Short Data Service - Service Access Point

TNSS-SAP TETRA Network layer Supplementary Services - Service Access Point

TOI Transport Object Identifier

ToIP Text over IP

TOM Tunneling Of Messages [3GTS 44.064]

TOM2 Tunneling Of Messages over LLC-SAPI 2 (for high priority signaling messages)[3GTS 44.064]

TOM8 Tunneling Of Messages over LLC-SAPI 8 (for low priority signaling messages)[3GTS 44.064]

TOS Type of Service

TOT Time Offset Table

TP Traffic Physical channel

TP-UD Transfer Protocol - User Data (in GSM)

TPC Transmit Power Control

TPC Transmit Power Command

TPS Transmission Parameter Signaling (DVB-H)

TPTI Transmitting Party Type Identifier

TQI Temporary Queuing Identifier

TRAU Transcoder and Rate Adaption Unit

TrCH Transport Channel (UMTS)

TrFO Transcoder Free Operation

TrGw Transition Gateway (IPv4 IPv6) (3GTS 23.228 (5.18))

TRX Transmitter / Receiver

TS Transport Stream

TS Traffic Stream

TS Timeslot

TS Time Sharing

TSC Training Sequence Code

TSC Temporal Key Integrity Protocol Sequence Counter

TSI TETRA Subscriber Identity

List of Acronyms


TSN Transmission Sequence Number

TSTD Time Switched Transmit Diversity

TTA Telecommunications Technology Association (South Korean standards organization)

TTG Tunnel Termination Gateway

TTG Transmit receive Transition Gap (IEEE 802.16 (3.63)) the time between a downlink subframe and the subsequent uplink subframe in a TDD-system

TTI Transmission Time Interval

TTL Time To Live (IP-Header / RFC 791)

TTR TETRA Association Technical Report

TU50 Typical Urban 50 km/h

TUA TCAP User Adaptation Layer

TUP Telephone User Part

TUSC Tile Use of Subchannels

TV Television

Tx Transmit(ter)

TX Transmit

TxAA Transmit Adaptive Arrays

TXOP Transmission Opportunity

U-MST Uplink Multiple Slot Transmission

U-SAP User Service Access Point

UA User Agent (SIP-Term / RFC 3261)

UA Unnumbered Acknowledgement (LAPD/LLC/RLP-Frame Type)

UAC User Agent Client (SIP-Term / RFC 3261)

UARFCN UMTS Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

UAS User Agent Server (SIP-Term / RFC 3261)

UAS-X egprs2 Uplink level A modulation and coding Scheme (x = 7..11)

UBS-X egprs2 Uplink level B modulation and coding Scheme (x = 5..12)

UCD Uplink Channel Descriptor (WiMAX Message)

UCI Uplink Control Indicator

UCS Universal Character Set

UCS-2 Universal Character Set coded in 2 octets

UDCH User-plane Dedicated Channel (3GTS 45.902)

UDH User Data Header




UDPTL UDP Transport Layer (used in SDP-description for T.38 fax-applications)

UE User Equipment

UEA UMTS Encryption Algorithm (3GTS 33.102)

UGS Unsolicited Grant Service (IEEE 802.16 Traffic Class)

UHF Ultra High Frequency

UI Unnumbered Information (LAPD) / Unconfirmed Information (LLC) / Frame Type

UIA UMTS Integrity Algorithm (3GTS 33.102)

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card (3GTS 22.101 / Bearer card of SIM / USIM)

UIUC Uplink Interval Usage Code (WiMAX Term)

UL Uplink

UL_DTX Uplink Discontinuous Transmission

UL-MAP Uplink-Medium Access Protocol (MAC-Message in WiMAX / IEEE 802.16)

UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel

UM Unacknowledged Mode operation

UMA Unlicensed Mobile Access (3GTS 43.318)

UMAN Unlicensed Mobile Access Network

UMB Ultra Mobile Broadband (3GPP2's EV-DO Rev C)

UMD Unacknowledged Mode Data (UMTS RLC PDU-type)

UMS User Mobility Server (HSS = HLR + UMS)

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

UNC UMA Network Controller

UNC-SGW UMA Network Controller Security Gateway

UNI User-to-Network Interface

UP User Priority

UP Unallocated Physical channel

URA UTRAN Registration Area

URA_PCH RRC URA State in UTRA

URB User Radio Bearer

URI Uniform Resource Identifier


US United States

USA United States of America

USAT USIM Application Toolkit

List of Acronyms


USB Universal Serial Bus

USCH Uplink Shared Channel (UMTS Transport Channel TDD only)

USD User Service Description

USF Uplink State Flag

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

USS Uplink sync Sequence Set

USSI Unexchanged Short Subscriber Identity

UTF-16BE Unicode Transformation Format serialized as two bytes in Big-Endian format

UTF-8 Unicode Transformation Format-X (Is an X-bit) lossless encoding of Unicode characters

UTRA UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) Terrestrial Radio Access


UUI User to User Information

UUS User-User-Signaling (3GTS 23.087)

UV Ultra Violet

UWB Ultra-Wide Band (IEEE 802.15.3)

UWC Universal Wireless Convergence (Merge IS-136 with GSM)

V-PLMN Visited PLMN

V+D Voice plus Data

V5UA V5.2-User Adaptation Layer (RFC 3807)

VA Vehicular A mobile radio channel

VAD Voice Activity Detector

VBS Voice Broadcast Service (GSM-R)

VC Virtual Circuit

VCC Voice Call Continuity (3GTS 23.206)

VCI Virtual Circuit Identifier (ATM)

VCO Voltage Controlled Oscillator

VCT MPEG PSI tables for ARIB

VDSL Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line (ITU-T G.993.1)

VE Virtual Engine

VGCS Voice Group Call Service (GSM-R)

VHE Virtual Home Environment (3GTS 22.121, 3GTS 23.127)

VHF Very High Frequency

VI Video

VLAN Virtual LAN



VLR Visitor Location Register

VO Voice

VoD Video on Demand

VoIMS Voice over IMS

VoIP Voice over IP

VPI Virtual Path Identifier (ATM)

VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile radio Network

VPN Virtual Private Network

VSI Virtual Socket Interface

VSRB Variable Sized Radio Blocks

VW Virtual Wire PDB (DiffServ Term)

W-AMR Wideband AMR-Codec (Adaptive Multirate) (3GTS 26.190)

W-AMR+ Extended Wideband AMR-Codec (Adaptive Multirate) (3GTS 26.290)

W-APN WLAN-APN (Wireless Local Area Network - Access Point Name) (3GTS 23.234)

WAG WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) Access Gateway

WAN Wide Area Network

WAP Wireless Application Protocol

WCDMA Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access

WDS Wireless Distribution System

WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy

WG Working Group

WI Work Item

WiBro Wireless Broadband, Korean WiMAX Version

WiFi Wireless Fidelity (www.wi-fi.org)


WINS Windows Internet Name Service

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network (IEEE 802.11)

WM Wireless Medium

WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

WMAX Alliance of IEEE-802.11-Standard Manufacturers

WMM WiFi MultiMedia

WPA WiFi Protected Access

WPA2 WiFi Protected Access Version 2

WRED Weighted Random Early Detection

List of Acronyms


WS Window Size

WSN Window Size Number

WWW World Wide Web

X-CSCF Call Session Control Function (any, there is I-CSCF, P-CSCF and X-CSCF)

X2-AP X2 Application Part

XHTML Extensible Hypertext Markup Language

XID Exchange Identification (LAPD/LLC-Frame Type)

XMAC Expected Message Authentication Code

XMF Extensible Music Format

XOR Exclusive-Or Logical Combination

XRES Expected Response (3GTS 33.102)

XUA Any User Adaptation Layer (M2UA, M3UA, SUA)

XXX_PCH RRC States: CELL_PCH or URA_PCH

ZF Zero Forcing



List of Acronyms
