Overview on UE Modes, Mobility

and Communication Management

- UE modes
- Mobility Management and
- Communication Management
for CS and PS modes

Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 1

UE Modes
Idle mode (paging area is known; paging needed)
– UE is identified by non-access stratum identities such as IMSI, TMSI
and P-TMSI
– UTRAN has no own information about the individual UEs in idle mode
(no RRC connection)
– UTRAN can only address e.g. all UEs in a cell or all UEs monitoring a
specific paging occasion

Connected mode (cell or URA is known; RRC connection)

– connected mode is entered when the UTRAN establishes and
maintains information about the individual UE (RRC connection)
– RRC connection is established between UE and Serving RNC
– UE is assigned a radio network temporary identity (U-RNTI and
possibly a C-RNTI) to be used as UE identity on common transport
channels (RACH, FACH, PCH)
– connected mode does not require assignment of physical channel
resources

Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 2

CS mode: Overview on Modes and States

UE MSC GMSC
CM: call state (active, null)
VLR HLR
MM state (detached, idle, connected)
RNC
Signaling connection

RRC connection

UE mode
MM: Mobility Management
CM: Connection Management

Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 3

CS Mobility Management States
MM in CS mode is tightly connected to connection management

no active call active call

(nor signaling) call completion (or signaling)
call setup or
LA update
MM- MM-
Idle Connected

cell known
LA known IMSI detach
(paging possible) IMSI attach or
LA update (UE is switched on)

MM-
Detached
LA unknown
(no paging)
UE switched off
MM state is maintained in UE and MSC/VLR
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 4
PS mode: Overview on Modes and States

UE SGSN GGSN
SM: PDP context (active, inactive)
HLR
PMM state (detached, idle, connected)
RNC
Signaling connection

RRC connection

UE mode
Cellular Communication Systems
PMM: Packet Mode Mobility Management
(also GMM – GPRS Mobility Management)
SM: Session Management
Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 5
Session Management (SM)
Fundamental differences of PS mode
Differences require
Connection (e.g. voice, CS data) different solutions to
• clearly defined start and end • mobility mgmt and
• no burstiness • communication mgmt

minutes
connection connection
setup release

Packet session (e.g. web surfing)

• start and end times are typically unknown to the UMTS system
• traffic is highly bursty

hours

seconds
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 6
PS Mobility Management States
MS MM States 3G-SGSN MM States

PMM- PMM-
DETACHED DETACHED

GPRS detach Detach, Detach,

PS Detach PS Attach Reject, PS Detach PS Attach Reject,
PS Attach RAU Reject PS Attach RAU Reject
GPRS attach
PS Signalling PS Signalling
Connection Release PMM- Connection Release PMM-
PMM-IDLE CONNECTED PMM-IDLE CONNECTED
SM-ACTIVE or SM-ACTIVE or SM-ACTIVE or SM-ACTIVE or
INACTIVE PS Signalling INACTIVE INACTIVE PS Signalling INACTIVE
Connection Establish Connection Establish

Paging only Signaling

(no signaling connection
between
Serving RNC
connection relocation
between MS MS and SGSN PS Mobility Management (PMM) is
and SGSN) (addressing independent of Session Management (SM),
by U-RNTI) e.g. availability of IP address & traffic activity
PMM is independent of the number and state of PDP
U-RNTI: UTRAN - Radio Network Temporary Identity contexts for the subscriber
In both the PMM-IDLE and the PMM-CONNECTED states,
session management may or may not have activated a PDP
Source: 3GPP 23.060-4.1.0
context (assigned a dynamic IP address)
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 7
Session Management – PS Mode

States of SM (state of PDP contexts)

– inactive: no packet data transfer, no valid routing information
– active: packet data transfer possible, valid routing information

Dominant packet data protocol (PDP): IP

Attributes of packet session: PDP context

– defines all parameters of the packet data session by end-to-end
attributes and QoS
– one PDP context per PS services with a certain QoS, e.g. for web
serving, streaming video, packet voice, etc.

Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 8

Session Management: States of PDP Context

GPRS subscription A GPRS subscription contains the

subscription of one or more IP addresses

Each IP address is described by one or more

PDP PDP contexts in the MS, SGSN, and GGSN
address
Each PDP context is associated with
– A QoS profile
– a traffic flow template (TFT) to
PDP discriminate flows sharing the same PDP
context
address

Every PDP context exists independently in

one of two PDP states
PDP state PDP state
active inactive The PDP state indicates whether data
transfer is enabled for that PDP address and
TFT or not
Reference: 3G 23.060, ch 9
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 9
Session Management: States of PDP Context

Inactive state:
– no valid routing or mapping
PDP Context
INACTIVE information to process data related
to PDP address
Activate PDP -> no data transfer
Context -> no updates due to location
changes (even in GPRS-attached
Deactivate PDP Context
states)
or PMM-DETACHED
PDP context activation (transition to
active state):
PDP Context – MS-initiated PDP context activation
ACTIVE – network-requested PDP context
activation

Reference: 3G 23.060, ch 9
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 10
Session Management: States of PDP Context

Active state:
– valid routing or mapping
PDP Context
INACTIVE information to process data related
to PDP address (MS, SGSN, GGSN)
Activate PDP – Requires MM state PMM-idle or
Context PMM-connected
-> data transfer possible
Deactivate PDP Context
-> updates due to location changes
or PMM-DETACHED
PDP context deactivation:
– PDP context deactivation procedure
PDP Context – MM state changes to PMM-
ACTIVE detached
PDP context modification, e.g. to
modify QoS profile
Reference: 3G 23.060, ch 9
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 11
Relation between PDP Context and MM
Relation between MM and
GPRS subscription PDP states:

• All PDP contexts of a

subscriber are associated
PDP with the same MM context
address for the IMSI of that
subscriber
Single
MM context • The MM state is
PDP PDP PDP PDP independent of the number
context context context context and state of PDP contexts
for the subscriber

• In both the PMM-IDLE and

PDP state PDP state the PMM-CONNECTED
active inactive states, session management
may or may not have
activated a PDP context

Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 12

Relations between CM/SM, MM/PMM, RRC
States and UE modes
CM/SM state(s) Subscrip- PDP inactive active
(UE-SGSN-GGSN) tion address
Core
Network
MM/PMM state detached idle connected
(UE, SGSN, HLR)

Signaling none yes

connection
(UE-SGSN)
UTRAN
RRC state idle connected
(UE-RNC)

UE UE mode idle connected

Paging using Addressing
TMSI/P-TMSI using RNTI
Cellular Communication Systems Andreas Mitschele-Thiel, Jens Mückenheim Oct-13 13