Radio Link Failure (RLF) Work Flow

Sept 2017

2015 © Samsung Electronics 1

3GPP Specifications
36.133 , 36.213 and 36.331

Neo RF
Sept 2017

2016 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and Proprietary.

 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring
 7.6 Radio Link Monitoring The mapping between the cell specific RS based downlink quality
and the hypothetical PDCCH BLER is up to the UE implementation
 7.6 .1 Introduction
 The UE shall monitor the downlink link quality based on the cell-specific reference signal
in order to detect the downlink radio link quality of the PCell as specified in [3].
 The UE shall estimate the downlink radio link quality and compare it to the thresholds Qout
and Qin for the purpose of monitoring downlink radio link quality of the PCell.
 The threshold Qout is defined as the level at which the downlink radio link cannot be
reliably received and shall correspond to 10% block error rate of a hypothetical PDCCH
transmission taking into account the PCFICH errors with transmission parameters specified
in Table 7.6.1-1.
 The threshold Qin is defined as the level at which the downlink radio link quality can be
significantly more reliably received than at Qout and shall correspond to 2% block error
rate of a hypothetical PDCCH transmission taking into account the PCFICH errors with
transmission parameters specified in Table 7.6.1-2.

[2] 3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio
Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification".
[3] 3GPP TS 36.213: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical
layer procedures"

2015 © Samsung Electronics 3

 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring
 7.6.2.1 Minimum requirement when no DRX is used
 When the downlink radio link quality of the PCell estimated over the last 200 ms
period becomes worse than the threshold Qout, Layer 1 of the UE shall send an out-
of-sync indication for the PCell to the higher layers within [200] ms Qout evaluation
period. A Layer 3 filter shall be applied to the out-of-sync indications as specified in
[2].
 When the downlink radio link quality of the PCell estimated over the last 100 ms
period becomes better than the threshold Qin, Layer 1 of the UE shall send an in-sync
indication for the PCell to the higher layers within 100 ms Qin evaluation period. A L3
filter shall be applied to the in-sync indications as specified in [2].
 The out-of-sync and in-sync evaluations of the PCell shall be performed as specified in
section 4.2.1 in [3]. Two successive indications from Layer 1 shall be separated by at
least 10 ms.
 The transmitter power of the UE shall be turned off within [40] ms after expiry of
T310 timer as specified in section 5.3.11 in [2].
[2] 3GPP TS 36.331: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio
Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification".
[3] 3GPP TS 36.213: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical
layer procedures"

2015 © Samsung Electronics 4

 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring
 7.6.2.2 Minimum requirement when DRX is used
 When DRX is used the Qout evaluation period (TEvaluate_Qout_DRX) and the Qin evaluation
period (TEvaluate_Qin_DRX) is specified in Table 7.6.2.2-1 will be used.
 When the downlink radio link quality of the PCell estimated over the last TEvaluate_Qout_DRX
[s] period becomes worse than the threshold Qout, Layer 1 of the UE shall send out-of-
sync indication for the PCell to the higher layers within TEvaluate_Qout_DRX [s] evaluation
period. A Layer 3 filter shall be applied to the out-of-sync indications as specified in [2].
 When the downlink radio link quality of the PCell estimated over the last TEvaluate_Qin_DRX [s]
period becomes better than the threshold Qin, Layer 1 of the UE shall send in-sync
indications for the PCell to the higher layers within TEvaluate_Qin_DRX [s] evaluation period.
A L3 filter shall be applied to the in-sync indications as specified in [2].
 The out-of-sync and in-sync evaluations of the PCell shall be performed as specified in
section 4.2.1 in [3]. Two successive indications from Layer 1 shall be separated by at least
max(10 ms, DRX_cycle_length).
 Upon start of T310 timer as specified in section 5.3.11 in [2], the UE shall monitor the link
for recovery using the evaluation period and Layer 1 indication interval corresponding to
the non-DRX mode until the expiry or stop of T310 timer.
 The transmitter power of the UE shall be turned off within 40 ms after expiry of T310
timer as specified in section 5.3.11 in [2].

2015 © Samsung Electronics 5

 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring
 7.6.2.3 Minimum requirement at transitions
 The out-of-sync and in-sync evaluations of the PCell shall be performed as specified in
section 4.2.1 in [3]. Two successive indications from Layer 1 shall be separated by at
least max(10 ms, DRX_cycle_length).
 When the UE transitions between DRX and non-DRX or when DRX cycle periodicity
changes, for a duration of time equal to the evaluation period corresponding to the
second mode after the transition occurs, the UE shall use an evaluation period that is
no less than the minimum of evaluation periods corresponding to the first mode
and the second mode. Subsequent to this duration, the UE shall use an evaluation
period corresponding to the second mode. This requirement shall be applied to both
out-of-sync evaluation and in-sync evaluation of the PCell.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 6

 3GPP 36.133
 6.1 RRC Re-establishment
 The requirements in this section are applicable to both E-UTRAN FDD and TDD.
 6.1.1 Introduction
 RRC connection re-establishment is initiated when a UE in RRC connected mode
looses RRC connection due to any of these reasons: radio link failure, handover
failure or radio link problem. The RRC es-tablishment procedure is specified in section
5.3.7 in TS 36.331 [2].
 6.1.2 Requirements
 In RRC connected mode the UE shall be capable of sending
RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest message within Tre-establish_delay seconds from
the moment it detects a loss in RRC connection. The total RRC connection delay (Tre-
establish_delay) shall be less than:
 Tre-establish_delay = TUL_grant + TUE_re-establish_delay
 TUL_grant: It is the time required to acquire and process uplink grant from the target
cell. The uplink grant is required to transmit RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest
message.
 The UE re-establishment delay (TUE_re-establish_delay) is specified in section 6.1.2.1.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 7

 3GPP 36.133
 6.1.2.1 UE Re-establishment delay requirement
 The UE re-establishment delay (TUE_re-establish_delay) is the time between the moments when
any of the conditions requiring RRC re-establishment as defined in section 5.3.7 in TS 36.331
[2] is detected by the UE to the time when the UE sends PRACH to the target cell. The UE
re-establishment delay (TUE_re-establish_delay) requirement shall be less than:
 TUE-re-establish_delay = 50 ms + Nfreq*Tsearch + TSI + TPRACH
 Tsearch: It is the time required by the UE to search the target cell.
 Tsearch = It is [100] ms if the target cell is known by the UE; the target cell is known if it
has been measured by the UE in the last 5 seconds.
 Tsearch = It is 800 ms if the target cell is unknown by the UE; the target cell is unknown
if it has not been measured by the UE in the last 5 seconds.
 TSI = It is the time required for receiving all the relevant system information according
to the reception procedure and the RRC procedure delay of system information blocks
defined in TS 36.331 [2] for E-UTRAN cell.
 TPRACH = The additional delay caused by the random access procedure; it will be at
least 10 ms due to random access occasion and there might be additional delay due to
ramping procedure.
 Nfreq: It is the total number of E-UTRA frequencies to be monitored for RRC re-
establishment; Nfreq = 1 if the target cell is known.
 There is no requirement if the target cell does not contain the UE context.
2015 © Samsung Electronics 8
 3GPP 36.213
 4.2.1 Radio link monitoring
 The downlink radio link quality of the primary cell shall be monitored by the UE for
the purpose of indicating out-of-sync/in-sync status to higher layers.
 In non-DRX mode operation, the physical layer in the UE shall every radio frame
assess the radio link quality, evaluated over the previous time period defined in [10],
against thresholds (Qout and Qin) defined by relevant tests in [10].
 In DRX mode operation, the physical layer in the UE shall at least once every DRX
period assess the radio link quality, evaluated over the previous time period defined
in [10], against thresholds (Qout and Qin) defined by relevant tests in [10].
 The physical layer in the UE shall in radio frames where the radio link quality is
assessed indicate out-of-sync to higher layers when the radio link quality is worse
than the threshold Qout. When the radio link quality is better than the threshold Qin,
the physical layer in the UE shall in radio frames where the radio link quality is
assessed indicate in-sync to higher layers.

[10] 3GPP TS36.133, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA);

Requirements for support of radio resource management”

2015 © Samsung Electronics 9

 3GPP 36.331
 5.3.11 Radio link failure related actions
 5.3.11.1 Detection of physical layer problems in RRC_CONNECTED
 The UE shall:
 1> upon receiving N310 consecutive "out-of-sync" indications for the PCell from lower
layers while neither T300, T301, T304 nor T311 is running:
 2> start timer T310;
 NOTE: Physical layer monitoring and related autonomous actions do not apply to
SCells.

 5.3.11.2 Recovery of physical layer problems
 Upon receiving N311 consecutive "in-sync" indications for the PCell from lower layers while
T310 is running, the UE shall:
 1> stop timer T310;
 NOTE 1: In this case, the UE maintains the RRC connection without explicit signalling, i.e.
the UE maintains the entire radio resource configuration.
 NOTE 2: Periods in time where neither "in-sync" nor "out-of-sync" is reported by layer 1 do
not affect the evaluation of the number of consecutive "in-sync" or "out-of-sync"
indications.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 10

 3GPP 36.331
 5.3.11.3 Detection of radio link failure
 The UE shall:
 1> upon T310 expiry; or
 1> upon random access problem indication from MAC while neither T300, T301, T304 nor T311 is
running; or
 1> upon indication from RLC that the maximum number of retransmissions has been reached:
 2> consider radio link failure to be detected;
 2> store the following radio link failure information in the VarRLF-Report by setting its fields as
follows:
 3> clear the information included in VarRLF-Report, if any;
 3> set the plmn-Identity to the RPLMN;
 3> set the measResultLastServCell to include the RSRP and RSRQ, if available, of the PCell based on
measurements collected up to the moment the UE detected radio link failure;
 3> set the measResultNeighCells to include the best measured cells, other than the PCell, ordered
such that the best cell is listed first, and based on measurements collected up to the moment the UE
detected radio link failure, and set its fields as follows;
 4> if the UE was configured to perform measurements for one or more EUTRA frequencies, include
the measResultListEUTRA;
 4> if the UE was configured to perform measurement reporting for one or more neighbouring UTRA
frequencies, include the measResultListUTRA;
 4> if the UE was configured to perform measurement reporting for one or more neighbouring
GERAN frequencies, include the measResultListGERAN;
2015 © Samsung Electronics 11
 3GPP 36.331
 4> if the UE was configured to perform measurement reporting for one or more neighbouring CDMA2000
frequencies, include the measResultsCDMA2000;
 NOTE: The measured quantities are filtered by the L3 filter as configured in the mobility measurement configuration.
The measurements are based on the time domain measurement resource restriction, if configured. Blacklisted cells are
not required to be reported.
 3> if detailed location information is available, set the content of the locationInfo as follows:
 4> include the locationCoordinates;
 4> include the horizontalVelocity, if available;
 3> set the failedPCellId to the global cell identity, if available, and otherwise to the physical cell identity and carrier
frequency of the PCell where radio link failure is detected;
 3> if an RRCConnectionReconfiguration message including the mobilityControlInfo concerning an intra E-UTRA
handover was received before the connection failure:
 4> include previousPCellId and set it to the global cell identity of the PCell where the last
RRCConnectionReconfiguration including the mobilityControlInfo message was received;
 4> set the timeConnFailure to the elapsed time since reception of the last RRCConnectionReconfiguration message
including the mobilityControlInfo;
 3> set the connectionFailureType to rlf;
 2> if AS security has not been activated:
 3> perform the actions upon leaving RRC_CONNECTED as specified in 5.3.12, with release cause 'other';
 2> else:
 3> initiate the connection re-establishment procedure as specified in 5.3.7;
 The UE may discard the radio link failure information, i.e. release the UE variable VarRLF-Report 48, hours after the
radio link failure is detected, upon power off or upon detach.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 12

 N310 Period without DRX
 The period of n310 is different based on handset vendors

2015 © Samsung Electronics 13

Radio Link Monitoring

Samsung NEO
Sept. 2017
 Radio Link Monitoring

 Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) is one of the important procedures in LTE. It is used to keep track
of the radio link condition so that appropriate steps can be taken if Radio Link Failure (RLF) is
declared.
 If so, UE performs two actions; 1) stopping autonomous uplink transmission by releasing
SPS, CQI, SRS, SR and 2) starting cell selection procedure to find a cell providing acceptable
radio link.

2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 15

 Radio Link Monitoring

 The UE shall monitor the downlink link quality based on the cell-specific reference
signal in order to detect the downlink radio link quality of the serving cell.

 The UE shall estimate the downlink radio link quality and compare it to the
thresholds Qout and Qin for the purpose of monitoring downlink radio link quality of
the serving cell.

 The threshold Qout is defined as the level at which the downlink radio link cannot
be reliably received and shall correspond to [10%] block error rate of a hypothetical
PDCCH transmission taking into account the PCFICH errors

 The threshold Qin is defined as the level at which the downlink radio link quality
can be significantly more reliably received than at Qout and shall correspond to
[2%] block error rate of a hypothetical PDCCH transmission taking into account the
PCFICH errors

2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 16

 Radio Link Monitoring

 When the downlink radio link quality estimated over the last 200 ms period becomes
worse than the threshold Qout, Layer 1 of the UE shall send radio problems indication to
its higher layers within 200 ms Qout evaluation period.
 When the downlink radio link quality estimated over the last 100 ms period becomes
better than the threshold Qin, Layer 1 of the UE shall send an in-sync indication to the
higher layers within 100 ms Qin evaluation period.
 The out-of-sync and in-sync evaluations shall be performed. Two successive indications
from Layer 1 shall be separated by at least 10 ms.
 The transmitter power shall be turned off within 40 ms after expiry of T310 timer.

Out of Synch and

Qout Evaluation Qin Evaluation
Service In Sync reporting
Period (ms) Period (ms)
Interval (ms)
QCI-9 200 100 10
QCI-1 200 100 10

2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 17

 Radio Link Monitoring

 When DRX is used the Qout evaluation period (TEvaluate_Qout_DRX) and the Qin evaluation period
(TEvaluate_Qin_DRX) is specified in Table below will be used.
 When the downlink radio link quality estimated over the last TEvaluate_Qout_DRX [s] period becomes
worse than the threshold Qout, Layer 1 of the UE shall send out-of- sync indication to the higher
layers within TEvaluate_Qout_DRX [s] evaluation period.
 When the downlink radio link quality estimated over the last TEvaluate_Qin_DRX [s] period becomes
better than the threshold Qin, Layer 1 of the UE shall send insync indications to the higher layers
within TEvaluate_Qin_DRX [s] evaluation period.
 The out-of-sync and in-sync evaluations shall be performed. Two successive indications from Layer
1 shall be separated by at least max ([10] ms, DRX_cycle_length).
 Upon start of T310 timer, the UE shall monitor the link for recovery using the evaluation period and
Layer 1 indication interval corresponding to the non-DRX mode until the expiry of T310 timer.
 The transmitter power shall be turned off within 40 ms after expiry of T310 counter.

DRX cycle length (s) TEvaluate_Qout_DRX and TEvaluate_Qin_DRX (s) (DRX cycles)
≤0.04 [Note (20 DRX Cycles)]
0.08 [0.8s (10 Cycles)]
0.16 [1.6s (10 Cycles)]
0.32 [3.2s (10 Cycles)]
Note: Evaluation period length in time depends on the length of the DRX cycle in use
2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 18
 Radio Link Monitoring

 When the UE transitions between DRX and non-DRX or when DRX cycle periodicity
changes, for a duration of time equal to the evaluation period corresponding to the
second mode after the transition occurs, the UE shall use an evaluation period that is no
less than the minimum of evaluation periods corresponding to the first mode and the
second mode.
 Subsequent to this duration, the UE shall use an evaluation period corresponding to the
second mode.
 This requirement shall be applied to both out-of-sync evaluation and insync evaluation.

2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 19

 Out Of Sync Indication Reporting To Higher Layer

 Below is Out of Sync Indication interval captured in UE logs

Data Call. DRX Cycle Length=320ms VoLTE Call. DRX Cycle Length=20ms

320ms

10ms
Volte Call Setup in DRX Mode

DRX Sleep Start

20ms

320ms

2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 20

 RLF Declaration Time in Jio Network
200 for first
OutofSync +9*10
for balance 9
 With N310=n10 10 DRX cycle for first OutofSync +9*DRX Cycle for
OutofSync
balance 9 OutofSync = 3.2s + 320ms*9
Evaluation time Per Total RLF Declaration
Service DRX Status
Indication Time
Non DRX Mode 200ms 290ms
Data
DRX Mode (320ms) 3.2s 6.08s
Non DRX Mode 200ms 290ms
VoLTE
DRX Mode (20ms) 400ms 580ms
20 DRX cycle for first OutofSync +9*DRX Cycle for
 With N310=n20 Volte Call Setup in DRX Mode
balance 9 OutofSync = 20*20ms + 20ms*9

Evaluation time Per Total RLF Declaration

Service DRX Status
Indication Time
Non DRX Mode 200ms 390ms
Data
DRX Mode (320ms) 3.2s 9.28s
Non DRX Mode 200ms 390ms
VoLTE
DRX Mode (20ms) 400ms 780ms
Note-After T310 start, In Sync evaluation time is always 100 ms , and reporting interval is always 10 ms
2017 © Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and 21
 RRC Timers
Timer Start Stop At expiry
Reception of RRCConnectionSetup or
Transmission of RRCConnectionReject message, cell re- Perform the actions as specified in
T300
RRCConnectionRequest selection and upon abortion of connection 5.3.3.6
establishment by upper layers
Reception of
Transmission of RRCConnectionReestablishment or
T301 RRCConnectionReestabilshme RRCConnectionReestablishmentReject Go to RRC_IDLE
ntRequest message as well as when the selected
cell becomes unsuitable
Reception of
RRCConnectionReject while Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED and Inform upper layers about barring
T302
performing RRC connection upon cell re-selection alleviation as specified in 5.3.3.7
establishment
Access barred while
performing RRC connection Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED and Inform upper layers about barring
T303
establishment for mobile upon cell re-selection alleviation as specified in 5.3.3.7
originating calls
Reception of
In case of cell change order from E-
RRCConnectionReconfiguratio
UTRA or intra E-UTRA handover,
n message including the Criterion for successful completion of
initiate the RRC connection re-
MobilityControl Info or handover to EUTRA or cell change order
T304 establishment procedure; In case of
reception of is met (the criterion is specified in the
handover to E-UTRA, perform the
MobilityFromEUTRACommand target RAT in case of inter-RAT)
actions defined in the specifications
message including
applicable for the source RAT.
CellChangeOrder
Access barred while
performing RRC connection Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED and Inform upper layers about barring
T305
establishment for mobile upon cell re-selection alleviation as specified in 5.3.3.7
originating signalling

2015 © Samsung Electronics 22

 RRC Timers
Timer Start Stop At expiry
Access barred while performing
Inform upper layers about
RRC connection establishment Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED and upon cell
T306 barring alleviation as specified in
for mobile originating CS re-selection
5.3.3.7
fallback.
Upon detecting physical layer Upon receiving N311 consecutive in-sync If security is not activated: go to
problems i.e. upon receiving indications from lower layers, upon triggering the RRC_IDLE else: initiate the
T310
N310 consecutive out-of-sync handover procedure and upon initiating the connection re-establishment
indications from lower layers connection re-establishment procedure procedure
Upon initiating the RRC
Selection of a suitable E-UTRA cell or a cell using
T311 connection re-establishment Enter RRC_IDLE
another RAT.
procedure
Upon receiving t320 or upon cell
(re)selection to E-UTRA from
Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED, when PLMN
another RAT with validity time Discard the cell reselection
selection is performed on request by NAS, or upon
T320 configured for dedicated priority information provided by
cell (re)selection to another RAT (in which case the
priorities (in which case the dedicated signalling.
timer is carried on to the other RAT).
remaining validity time is
applied).
Initiate the measurement
Upon acquiring the information needed to set all
Upon receiving measConfig reporting procedure, stop
fields of cellGlobalId for the requested cell, upon
T321 including a reportConfig with the performing the related
receiving measConfig that includes removal of the
purpose set to reportCGI measurements and remove the
reportConfig with the purpose set to reportCGI
corresponding measId
Upon receiving Upon log volume exceeding the suitable UE
Perform the actions specified in
T330 LoggedMeasurementConfigurati memory, upon initiating the release of
5.6.6.4
on message LoggedMeasurementConfiguration procedure

Constant Usage
N310 Maximum number of consecutive "out-of-sync" indications received from lower layers
N311 Maximum number of consecutive "in-sync" indications received from lower layers

2015 © Samsung Electronics 23

 T310 and N310

2015 © Samsung Electronics 24

 RRC Connection Establishment
 Upper Layers in the UE trigger connection establishment which may be in response to
paging. The UE checks if access is barred. If not, the lower layers in the UE perform a
contention based random access procedure
 The UE starts a timer T300 and sends RRCConnectionRequest message. This message
includes initial identity S TMSI or a random number and an establishment cause

The UE returns the

RRCConnectionSetupComplete
message and includes the NAS
message, an identifier of the
selected PLMN and if provided by
upper layers an identifier of the
registered MME. Based on the
last two parameters the eNodeB
decides on the Core Network
Node to establish the S1
connection

2015 © Samsung Electronics 25

 T300
Starts with Transmission of RRCConnectionRequest by UE and stops with Reception of RRCConnectionSetup or
RRCConnectionReject message, cell re-selection and upon abortion of connection establishment by upper
layer at UE end. This timer gives the duration for how long the UE waits for a response to the RRC
Connection Request message. Time gap between Msg4 and Msg 3. The UE shall continue cell re-
Description
selection related measurements as well as cell re-selection evaluation. If the conditions for cell re-selection
are fulfilled, the UE shall perform cell re-selection before expiry of this timer. Upon Expiry - UE reset MAC,
release the MAC configuration and re-establish RLC for all RBs that are established and inform upper layers
about the failure to establish the RRC connection, upon which the procedure ends.

Unit msec RRC Connection

Diagram

(RRC Connection Request)

T300

(RRC Connection Setup)

A lower value for T300 may cause the UE to stop the RRC conncection prematurely without getting enough time to
Identifying Appropriate Value complete any RACH Contention Resolution. It is recommended to start with a higher value and move to a lower value
after achieving good RACH performance
Reference Specifications 36.331
Range of values 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 msec
Agreed value 200 msec

2015 © Samsung Electronics 26

 Connection Re-establishment (T301 & T311)
 For failure cases – radio link failure, handover failure, RLC unrecoverable error,
reconfiguration compliance failure, the UE initiates the RRC connection re-establishment
procedure provided that security is active (else moves to RRC_IDLE state)
 The UE the starts a timer T311 and performs cell selection. The UE should prioritize
searching on LTE frequencies.
 Upon finding a suitable cell on an LTE frequency, the UE stops the timer T311 and
starts timer T301 and initiates a contention based random access procedure to enable
RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest message to be sent.
 In the RRCConnectionReestablishment message the UE includes the identity used in the
cell in which failure occurred , the identity of that cell, a short Message Authentication
Code and a cause
 The E-UTRAN uses the re-establishment procedure to continue SRB1 and to re-activate
security without changing algorithms. A subsequent RRC connection reconfiguration
procedure is used to resume operation on radio bearers other than SRB1 and to re-
activate measurements.
 If the target cell is not prepared (i.e. does not have a context for that UE) the E-UTRAN
will reject the procedure causing the UE to move to RRC_IDLE

2015 © Samsung Electronics 27

 RRC Connection Reestablishment
 RRC connection re-establishment when UE loses its RRC connection – the UE tries to
re-establish the RRC connection with the strongest E-UTRA Cell.
 Successful RRC re-establishment means that the UE is able to send
‘RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest’ message within Tre-establish_delay

2015 © Samsung Electronics 28

 T301
Starts with Transmission of RRCConnectionReestabilshmentRequest by UE and
Description stops at Reception of RRCConnectionReestablishment or
RRCConnectionReestablishmentReject message as well as when the selected cell
becomes unsuitable. Upon Expiry - UE goes to idle mode.
Unit
RRC Connection Re
establishment

Diagram
(RRC Connection Request)
T301

(RRC Connection Setup)

A lower value for T301 may not be enough for the UE to complete any RACH
Contention Resolution and receive network response in some cases. It is
Identifying Appropriate Value recommended to start with a higher value and move to a lower value after
achieving good RACH performance. This parameter should be optimized based
on mobility drive tests
Range of values 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 msec
Recommended value 1000 msec

2015 © Samsung Electronics 29

 T311
Start Upon initiating the RRCconnection reestablishmentmprocedure. RRE Procedure includes
Cell Reselection and RRC Connection. This timer is for Cell Reselection process only. Stop upon
Description
Selection of a suitable E-UTRA cell or a cell using another RAT. Upon expiry - UE enter
RRC_IDLE
Unit msec

Diagram

Start Upon initiating the RRCconnection reestablishmentmprocedure. RRE

Procedure includes Cell Reselection and RRC Connection. This timer is for Cell
Identifying Appropriate Value
Reselection process only. Stop upon Selection of a suitable E-UTRA cell or a cell
using another RAT. Upon expiry - UE enter RRC_IDLE
Range of values 1000, 3000, 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 30000
Recommended value 3000

2015 © Samsung Electronics 30

 Radio Link Monitoring Performance
 Radio Link Monitoring Function in the UE monitors the down link radio link quality of
the serving cell in RRC_CONNECTED state and is based on Cell Specific RS
 This enables the UE in RRC_CONNECTED state to determine whether it is ‘in-sync’ or
‘out of sync’ with respect to serving cell
 In case consecutive out of sync indications as N310, the UE starts a timer T310. The
timer is stopped if a number N311 of consecutive in sync indications are reported by
the UE
 Upon expiry of timer T310 RLF Radio Link Failure occurs
 The UE turns off its transmitter to avoid interference and is required to re-establish
the RRC connection within TUE-re-establish_delay

2015 © Samsung Electronics 31

 N310
Number of consecutive out-of-sync indications from lower
Description
layers. If reached, it triggers T310 timer.
Unit Integer

Symbolic Diagram

A lower value is recommended for networks with VoLTE services

Identifying Appropriate so as to improve the user experience via quicker RRC
Value Connection re-establishment. Tunable - based on RLF
performance analysis.
Range of values 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20
Recommended value 10

2015 © Samsung Electronics 32

 N311
Number of consecutive in-sync indications from lower layers,
Description
time bound by T311
Unit Integer

Symbolic Diagram

A lower value is recommended for networks with VoLTE services

Identifying Appropriate so as to improve the user experience via quicker RRC
Value Connection re-establishment. Tunable - based on RLF
performance analysis.
Range of values 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20
Recommended value 1

2015 © Samsung Electronics 33

 T310
Start Upon detecting physical layer problems i.e. upon receiving N310
consecutive out-of-sync indications from lower layers and stop upon receiving
N311 consecutive in-sync indications from lower layers, upon triggering the
Description
handover procedure and upon initiating the connection re-establishment
procedure. Upon expiry - If security is not activated: go to RRC_IDLE, else:
initiate the connection re-establishment procedure.
Unit msec

Diagram

A lower value is recommended for networks with VoLTE services so as to improve

Identifying Appropriate Value the user experience via quicker RRC Connection re-establishment. Tunable - based
on RLF performance analysis.
Range of values 0, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000
Recommended value 1000 msec

2015 © Samsung Electronics 34

 In Sync and Out of Sync Thresholds
 Qout and Qin : 10% BLER and 2% BLER
 These thresholds are expressed in terms of BLER Block Error Rate of PDCCH
 The same thresholds are applicable with or without DRX
 Without DRX – out of sync occurs when down link radio link quality estimated over
last 200 ms period becomes worse than Qout. The In Sync occurs when down link
radio quality estimated over last 100 ms period becomes better than Qin
 With DRX, the out of synch and in sync evaluation periods are extended and depend
upon the configured DRX cycle length. The UE starts ‘in sync’ evaluation whenever
‘out of sync’ occurs. Therefore the same period TEvaluate_Qout-DRX is used for evaluation
of ‘out of sync’ and ‘in sync’. However upon starting the RLF Timer T310 until its
expiry the in sync period is shortened to 100 ms. If the timer T310 is stopped due to
N311 consecutive in sync indications, the UE performs ‘in sync’ evaluation according
to the DRX based period TEvaluate_Qout_DRX

2015 © Samsung Electronics 35

 DL RLF - Without DRX
Last Last

On Radio Link Failure, the UE tries to reconnect with the ‘RRC

Reestablishment message request’
Out-of-Sync evaluated over last 200 ms ; In-Sync evaluated over last
100 ms;
2015 © Samsung Electronics 36
 [0x0343] ECC_RADIO_LINK_FAILURE

• Call dropped as RLF after totally 9 secs (4+5 Sec) on

UE basis.

CALL_DROP
(*) eNB MAC : RLF decision condition.

• If No NACK/DTX for all PDSCH transmissions for consecutive

4 sec. eNB MAC detects Out of Sync and sends
‘msgCmacPhyOutOfSynchInd’ to higher layers
• L3 starts ‘INTERNAL_REESTABLSH_TIME_TO_WAIT’ a timer
awaiting ReEstablishment Request from UE.
• If no RRE come from UE within wait timer, L3 shall release
the call with CRR 0x343

Observations (from ECCB DSH):-

[ECCB, 2] <00:49:34:488> 371, 3[<=] MACB DB 58575 msgCmacPhyOutOfSynchInd
[ECCB, 2] <00:49:38:847> 371, 3[<=] TIME DB 58603 timInternalSigInactivity TMOUT
[ECCB, 2] <00:49:39:492> 371, 3[<=] TIME DB 58631 InternaReestablshTimeToWait TMOUT
[ECCB, 2] <00:49:39:492> 371, 3[=>] S1AP DB 58631 msgS1apUEContextReleaseRequest
[ECCB, 2] <00:49:39:500> 371, 3[<=] S1AP COMMrelcmd 58631 msgS1apUEContextReleaseCommand
[ECCB, 2] <00:49:39:500> 371, 3[=>] RRC COMMrelcmd 58631 msgRrcRRCConnectionRelease

© Samsung Electronics. All Rights Reserved. Confidential and Proprietary.

 RLF Basic Process Flow
Out of Sync Detection In Sync Indication RLF Declared at UE Timers/ Current Value
Constants

N310 consecutive Out Of Sync Frame N311 In Sync N310 N20

Frame Indication

N311 N1
In Sync Frame

…
T310 2000ms
1 1 RLF
0 1 2
8 9
N311

N310 T310
Timer T310 Expire
T310 Triggers

UE detects “X“ Out of Sync frame If UE detects “Y“ In If There is no In Sync

Indications. Sync indications frame Indications till RLF timers
It triggers RLF where X= N310 . then UE get out of RLF T310 expires
In current network N310 = 20 Which means and resumes radio link then RLF will occur at
where N311=1 which UE.
20 Frames ( N310 reporting period taken as
means 1 frame.
10 ms).

2015 © Samsung Electronics 38

 RLF followed by RRE
In Sync Indication RRE (RRCConnectionReestablishment)
Out of Sync Detection
Process

N311 In Sync
Frame Indication
N310 consecutive Out Of Sync Frame RRC IDLE

In Sync Frame
RLF

012
… N310
11
89

T310
N311
1
Timer T310 Expire

T311
3
T301

RRE Timer
2
Timers/ Current 1. Once Radio Link Failure(RLF) happens at UE following T310 timer expiry, UE starts RRE(RRCConnection
Constants Value Reestablishment) process.

2. During RRE UE initially starts Timer T311 which is cell Reselection timer. During This timer UE selects
suitable cell and sends RRE(RRCConnectionReestablishment) request to selected cell.
In current network Timer T311=3000ms this means UE has to select suitable cell within 3000ms .
T311 3000ms
3. RRE Timer T301 starts when UE send “RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest” message and stops
upon “RRCConnectionReestablishment” or “RRCConnectionReestablishmentReject “ message from
T301 300ms selected cell.
In current network RRE timer (T301) is 300ms. This means After RLF UE should perform RRE process
within 300ms and successfully recover from RLF else call drop will happen and UE goes to RRE IDLE
state.
2015 © Samsung Electronics 39
 RLF process workflow at UE and ENB
UE goes out of RLF if
N311 receives after RLF
N310
UE Out
detects out of Trigger
of Sync N311
Sync N310
Indications In Sync
Indications
UE

RLF
T310 T311 T301
2000ms 3000ms 300ms
Timer
T310
Starts RRE
RRC Connected

PUSCH CRC
Checking

9 sec (4000ms+5000ms)

MAC
Timer at ENB
4000ms
Call drop due to RLF
MAC PhyOutOfSync UE Internal Reestablish
Indication time to Wait :5000ms
ECCB
5000ms
2015 © Samsung Electronics 40
 RLF Performance Monitor KPI/Counters
 Connection failure cases generally correspond to Radio Link Failures (RLFs), including handover
failure.
 The Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) SON feature aims at detecting and preventing
connection failures that occur as a result of mobility. These failures are of four types:
 Too-late handover, leading to a connection failure in the serving cell;
 Too-early handover, leading to a connection failure in the target cell;
 Handover to an inappropriate cell, leading to a connection failure in the wrong target cell.
 Coverage hole, leading to a connection failure in the serving cell;
Handover Too Late Handover Too Early Handover To Wrong Cell
Source Target Source Target Source Target
RLF before Handover RLF after Handover RLF after Handover

Other

Source Target Source Target

Radio link
Source Target
Radio link
Reestablishment Reestablishment

Radio link Other

Reestablishment

2015 © Samsung Electronics 41

 Too Late Handover (RLF Performance Monitor KPI/Counters )
Source ENB Target ENB

UE
Radio link failure at the source cell prior to HO

RRCConnectionReestabilshmentRequest

Includes a flag to indicate

That RLF info available to be RRCConnectionReestablishment
reported by UE.
RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete

UE information Request

UE information Response

Radio link failure (RLF) Indication

Radio link failure due to Too late handover

2015 © Samsung Electronics 42
 Too Early Handover (RLF Performance Monitor KPI/Counters )
Source ENB Target ENB

UE
Radio link failure at the Target cell during HO execution
RRCConnectionReestabilshmentRequest

RRCConnectionReestablishment

RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete

UE information Request

UE information Response

Radio link failure (RLF) Indication

Radio link failure due to Too Early handover

2015 © Samsung Electronics 43
 Handover to Wrong Cell(RLF Performance Monitor KPI/Counters )
Source ENB Target ENB Other ENB

UE

Handover completed from Source ENB to Target ENB

Radio link failure at Target ENB

RRCConnectionReestabilshmentRequest

RRCConnectionReestablishment

RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete

UE information Request

UE information Response

Radio link failure Indication

Handover Report

Radio link failure due to wrong cell handover

2015 © Samsung Electronics 44
Coverage Hole (RLF Performance Monitor KPI/Counters )
RLF due to Coverage Hole
Criteria

Source ENB

UE

Radio link failure at the Source cell before HO Initiation

RRCConnectionReestabilshmentRequest

RRCConnectionReestablishment

RRCConnectionReestablishmentComplete

If there is an RLF report and the coverage h

ole conditions are satisfied (SINR<= -5dB)
then serving cell collects the statistics of C
overage Hole.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 45

 Flow Chart : RLF Work flow
UE Detects eNB Call Drop_ Call Drop _
Y
Out Of Sync RLF RLF ARQ Retransmission

UE out
Of Y
Coverage HoleN
Coverage
N N
T310 stops
N

Y UE
Timer attempts UE
Y
UE In Sync N Expiry RRE at Release 9?
T310 Source
Y
Y Y
RRE
Trigger UE Base RLF HO
Y N Coverage Hole
Triggered?

N
Y

RRE
Y SINR<-5dB
Success

N N

HO in Progress
RRE timer expire.
Call Drop_RRE N RRE Fail Y
Time Out

2015 © Samsung Electronics 46

 Stages involved during Handover
 HO Stages :

UE SeNB TeNb - Before HO Initiation

RRC Connection Reconfiguration

- After HO trigger
Measurement Report

HO Request
- During HO
Execution
HO Request Acknowledge
- After HO Execution
(means its start of
RRC Connection Reconfiguration
HO Command HO Completion
Phase)
Data Forwarding
RRC Connection Reconfiguration complete

HO Completion process starts from

Downlink Data here & end when UE reconnects with TeNB

Uplink Data

 SeNB - Source ENB

 TeNB – Target ENB

2015 © Samsung Electronics 47

 RLF Counters/KPIs :
 Radio Link Failure performance analysis is based on counters which are collected with
Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) functionality. Following counters are considered
For RLF analysis.
1. Cover age Hole
2. Cover age HoleN
3. TooEarlyHoFailure
4. TooEarlyHoRlfAfterHo
5. TooLateHoRlfAfterTriggering MroRlfCnt
6. TooLateHoRlfBeforeTriggering
7. WrongCellRlfAfterHo
8. WrongCellRlfAfterTriggering
9. Pingpong Ho
Note : We do not consider Ping-Pong Handover for RLF analysis. This counter is excluded while
considering MroRlfCnt.

 Also when RLF associates with Call Drop some additional counters are pegged as below.
1. CallDrop_EccbRadioLinkFailure
2. CallDrop_EccbArqMaxReTransmission
3. CallDrop_EccbTmoutRrcConnectionReestablish.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 48

 RRC Connection Re-establishment
 In LTE the establishment and maintenance of the RRC connection is governed by the
two main control plane functions: RRC Connection Re-establishment and Random
Access
 RRC connection re-establishment is initiated when a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state
loses its RRC connection (e.g. due to radio link failure, handover failure or RRC
connection reconfiguration failure).
 The UE tries to re-establish the RRC connection with the strongest E-UTRA cell.
Successful RRC re-establishment means that the UE is able to send the
‘RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest’ message within Tre-establish_delay, including
the delay in acquiring the uplink grant for sending the message and TUE-re-establish_delay
which is defined as the delay from the moment when the UE detects the need for
RRC re-establishment until it transmits a random access signal to the target cell:

 where Nfreq is the total number of E-UTRA carrier frequencies available for RRC
reestablishment, Tsearch is the target cell search delay and depends upon whether the
target cell is known or unknown to the UE, TSI is the time required to read the target
cell System Information (SI) and TPRACH is the delay due to random access.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 49

 RACH
 The random access procedure requirements are specified for both contention-based
and contention-free random access. The primary objectives of the requirements are
to ensure the correct UE behavior when performing random access, and that the UE
transmit power accuracy and transmit timing error when sending random access are
within suitable limits. These requirements include:
 If the UE does not receive a random access response matching its PRACH preamble
identity within the random access response window, it should retransmit a
preamble, up to and not exceeding the maximum number of preamble transmissions
configured by the eNodeB.
 The transmit power accuracy of the UE’s PRACH preamble transmissions should fulfil
the standard requirements
 The required transmit timing accuracy of the UE’s PRACH preamble transmissions
depends upon the transmission bandwidth, since at lower bandwidth the UE typically
uses lower sampling rate. The transmit timing error due to all PRACH transmissions
(initial and subsequent preamble transmissions) should be within ± 24Ts and ± 12Ts
for system bandwidths equal to 1.4 MHz and ≥ 3 MHz respectively

2015 © Samsung Electronics 50

 Radio Link Monitoring Performance
 The purpose of the radio link monitoring function in the UE is to monitor the downlink radio
link quality of the serving cell in RRC_CONNECTED state and is based on the cell specific RSs.
This in turn enables the UE when in RRC_CONNECTED state to determine whether it is in-
sync or out-of-sync with respect to its serving cell.
 In case of a certain number of consecutive out-of-sync indications (called ‘N310’), the UE
starts a network-configured radio link failure timer ‘T310’. The timer is stopped if a number
‘N311’ of consecutive in-sync indications are reported by the UE’s physical layer. Both the
out-of-sync and in-sync counters (N310 and N311) are configurable by the network. Upon
expiry of the timer T310, Radio Link Failure (RLF) occurs. As a consequence the UE turns off
its transmitter to avoid interference and is required to re-establish the RRC connection
within TUE-re-establish_delay . The various actions pertaining to radio link monitoring and the
subsequent RRC re-establishment to the target cell are shown in Figure below

2015 © Samsung Electronics 51

 Out of Sync and In Sync
 The UE’s estimate of the downlink radio link quality is compared with out-of-sync and in
sync thresholds, Qout and Qin, for the purpose of radio link monitoring. These thresholds
are expressed in terms of the BLock Error Rate (BLER) of a hypothetical Physical
Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission from the serving cell. Specifically, Qout
corresponds to a 10% BLER while Qin corresponds to a 2%BLER.
 The same threshold levels are applicable with and without DRX.
 The mapping between the cell specific RS based downlink quality and the hypothetical
PDCCH BLER is up to the UE implementation. However, the performance is verified by
conformance tests defined for various environments
 Requirements Without DRX
 When no DRX is configured, out-of-sync occurs when the downlink radio link quality
estimated over the last 200 ms period becomes worse than the threshold Qout.
Similarly without DRX the in-sync occurs when the downlink radio link quality estimated
over the last 100 ms period becomes better than the threshold Qin. Upon detection of
out-of-sync, the UE initiates the evaluation of in-sync. The occurrences of out-of-sync
and in-sync are reported internally by the UE’s physical layer to its higher layers, which
in turn may apply layer 3 (i.e. higher layer) filtering for the evaluation of RLF.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 52

 Out of Sync and In Sync
 Requirements With DRX
 When DRX is in use, in order to enable sufficient UE power saving the out-of-sync and
insync evaluation periods are extended and depend upon the configured DRX cycle
length.
 The UE starts in-sync evaluation whenever out-of-sync occurs. Therefore the same
period (TEvaluate_Qout_DRX) is used for the evaluation of out-of-sync and in-sync.
However, upon starting the RLF timer (T310) until its expiry, the in-sync evaluation
period is shortened to 100 ms, which is the same as without DRX. If the timer T310 is
stopped due to N311 consecutive in-sync indications, the UE performs in-sync
evaluation according to the DRX based period (TEvaluate_Qout_DRX).

2015 © Samsung Electronics 53

 Out of Sync and In Sync
 Requirements at Transition:
 In LTE a transition phase is caused by switching between DRX and non-DRX operation
or switching between short and long DRX or vice versa. These scenarios can occur
often, and therefore the UE behaviour is specifically defined for the evaluation of the
radio link quality during the transition period. There are two main aspects of the
requirements:
 • Length of the transition period, TP;
 • Evaluation period, TEvaluate_Transition, during the transition.
 The transition period TP is equal to the evaluation period of the mode after the
transition.
 During this phase the evaluation period TEvaluate_Transition is defined as follows:

 where TEvaluate_mode1 and TEvaluate_mode2 correspond to the evaluation periods of the first
and the second mode respectively.
 Equation above applies to both in-sync and out-of-sync evaluations. After the
transition period, the UE uses an evaluation period corresponding to the second
mode. The evaluation periods during the transition from short to long DRX and vice
versa are illustrated in Figure in following slide
2015 © Samsung Electronics 54
 Out of Sync and In Sync
Tevaluate_Long DRX > Tevaluate_Short DRX

Radio link monitoring evaluation period (a) during transition from long DRX
to short DRX, and (b) during transition from short DRX to long DRX.

2015 © Samsung Electronics 55

Copyright and Confidentiality
Copyright © 2016, SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd. SAMSUNG Electronics reserves the right to make changes to the specifications of
the products detailed in this document at any time without notice and obligation to notify any person of such changes. Information
in this document is proprietary to SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd. No information contained here may be copied, translated,
transcribed or duplicated by any form without the prior written consent of SAMSUNG Electronics.
 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring

2015 © Samsung Electronics 57

 3GPP 36.133 Radio Link Monitoring

2015 © Samsung Electronics 58