Data Flow Across LTE Protocol Layers

[rmwambu]

The LTE (long term evolution) air interface provides connectivity between the user equipment (UE) and the eNB (eNodeB). It is split into a control plane and a user plane. Among the two control plane signalings, the first is provided by the access stratum (AS) and carries signaling between the UE and the eNB. The second carries non-access stratum (NAS) signaling messages between the UE and the MME (mobility management entity), which is piggybacked into an RRC (radio resource control) message. The user plane delivers the IP (Internet protocol) packets to and from the EPC (evolved packet core), the S-GW (serving gateway), and the PDN-GW (packet data network gateway).


The structure of the lower layer protocols for the control and user planes in AS are the same. Both planes utilize the protocols of PDCP (packet data convergence protocol), RLC (radio link control), and MAC (medium access control), as well as the PHY (physical layer) for the transmission of the signaling and data packets.


The figure below, illustrates the radio interface protocol stack. The protocol stacks reside in both the UE and the E-UTRAN (evolved universal terrestrial radio access network). READ FURTHER AT:-----http://trends-in-telecoms.blogspot.c...ol-layers.html