scope:

The present document specifies the procedures used at the radio interface (Reference Point Um, see 3GPP TS 24.002) for Radio Resource (RR) management.

Notation "Reserved sub-clause number" is used to indicate which sub-clauses of the specification were moved from this part of the standard to the other part when this standard was split between RAN and CN parts.

When the notations for "further study" or "FS" or "FFS" are present in this specification they mean that the indicated text is not a normative portion of this standard.

These procedures are defined in terms of messages exchanged over the control channels of the radio interface. The control channels are described in 3GPP TS 44.003.

The structured functions and procedures of this protocol and the relationship with other layers and entities are described in general terms in 3GPP TS 24.007.

Scope of the Technical Specification

The procedures currently described in the present document are for radio resource management for circuit-switched and GPRS services.

3GPP TS 24.010 contains functional procedures for support of supplementary services.

3GPP TS 24.011 contains functional procedures for support of point-to-point short message services.

3GPP TS 44.012 contains functional description of short message - cell broadcast.

3GPP TS 44.060 contains procedures for radio link control and medium access control (RLC/MAC) of packet data physical channels.

3GPP TS 44.071 contains functional descriptions and procedures for support of location services.

3GPP TS 24.008 contains the procedures for CN protocols.

NOTE: "layer 3" includes the functions and protocols described in this Technical Specification. The terms "data link layer" and "layer 2" are used interchangeably to refer to the layer immediately below layer 3.

Application to the interface structures

The layer 3 procedures apply to the interface structures defined in 3GPP TS 44.003. They use the functions and services provided by layer 2 defined in 3GPP TS 44.005 and 3GPP TS 44.006. 3GPP TS 24.007 gives the general description of layer 3 including procedures, messages format and error handling.

Structure of layer 3 procedures

A building block method is used to describe the layer 3 procedures.

The basic building blocks are "elementary procedures" provided by the protocol control entities of the three sublayers, i.e. radio resource management, mobility management and connection management sublayer.

Complete layer 3 transactions consist of specific sequences of elementary procedures. The term "structured procedure" is used for these sequences.

Test procedures

Test procedures of the GSM radio interface signalling are described in 3GPP TS 51.010 and 3GPP TS 51.02x series.

Use of logical channels

The logical control channels are defined in 3GPP TS 45.002. In the following those control channels are considered which carry signalling information or specific types of user packet information:

i) Broadcast Control CHannel (BCCH): downlink only, used to broadcast Cell specific information;

ii) Synchronization CHannel (SCH): downlink only, used to broadcast synchronization and BSS identification information;

iii) Paging CHannel (PCH): downlink only, used to send page requests to Mobile Stations (MSs);

iv) Random Access CHannel (RACH): uplink only, used to request a Dedicated Control CHannel;

v) Access Grant CHannel (AGCH): downlink only, used to allocate a Dedicated Control CHannel;

vi) Standalone Dedicated Control CHannel (SDCCH): bi-directional;

vii) Fast Associated Control CHannel (FACCH): bi-directional, associated with a Traffic CHannel;

viii) Slow Associated Control CHannel (SACCH): bi-directional, associated with a SDCCH or a Traffic CHannel;

ix) Cell Broadcast CHannel (CBCH): downlink only used for general (not point to point) short message information;

x) Notification CHannel (NCH): downlink only, used to notify mobile stations of VBS (Voice Broadcast Service) calls or VGCS (Voice Group Call Service) calls.

xi) Extended Coverage Broadcast Control CHannel (EC-BCCH): downlink only, used to broadcast Cell specific information in cells that support EC-GSM-IoT;

xii) Extended Coverage Synchronization CHannel (EC-SCH): downlink only, used to broadcast synchronization, BSS identification, EC-BCCH CHANGE MARK, Implicit Reject Status and RACH Access Control in cells that support EC-GSM-IoT;

xiii) Extended Coverage Paging CHannel (EC-PCH): downlink only, used to send page requests to EC capable Mobile Stations (MSs) in cells that support EC-GSM-IoT;

xiv) Extended Coverage Access Grant CHannel (EC-AGCH): downlink only, used to allocate packet resources to EC capable Mobile Stations (MSs) in cells that support EC-GSM-IoT;

xv) Extended Coverage Random Access CHannel (EC-RACH): uplink only, used to request uplink packet resources by EC capable Mobile Stations (MSs) in cells that support EC-GSM-IoT;

Two service access points are defined on signalling layer 2 which are discriminated by their Service Access Point Identifiers (SAPI) (see 3GPP TS 44.006):

i) SAPI 0: supports the transfer of signalling information including user-user information;

ii) SAPI 3: supports the transfer of user short messages.

Layer 3 selects the service access point, the logical control channel and the mode of operation of layer 2 (acknowledged, unacknowledged or random access, see 3GPP TS 44.005 and 3GPP TS 44.006) as required for each individual message.