DC & CA

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 DC & CA
•Dual connectivity (DC) is a 3GPP Release 12 feature for small cell enhancement
•it aims to utilize the radio resource within multiple carriers to improve UE throughput. The difference between DC and CA is in their application
scenarios and their implementation.
•Dual Connectivity is a mode of operation where a a multiple Rx/Tx capable UE in RRC CONNECTED mode can be configured to utilize the radio
resource of two distinct schedulers, located in two eNBs namely Master eNB and Secondary eNB connected via a non-ideal back-haul over the X2
interface.
•Carrier aggregation (CA) is designed to increase the data rate per user by configuring the mobile terminal to be simultaneous ly connected with
multiple cells of the serving base station, which makes the mobile terminal, or user equipment (UE), operate at multiple freq uencies at the same time
•With Dual Connectivity (DC), the mobile terminal can be simultaneously connected to two serving base stations (known as the master node, MN, and
the secondary node, SN).
•Dual connectivity and carrier aggregation can also be combined, so that the UE is connected to two base stations and utilize multiple cells in each of
them – drastically increasing the maximum bandwidth for the mobile terminal .
•UE goes first to the connected state with only one serving cell, where it’s then configured to perform measurements of other candidate
frequencies/cells. It’s not until the measurement results are reported that the network will configure the UE to start operat ing with CA and/or DC.
•CA allows up to five component carriers simultaneously to be aggregated for a mobile terminal, effectively increasing the maximu m bandwidth
fivefold, up to 100MHz.
•DC allows a UE to simultaneously transmit and receive data on multiple component carriers from two serving nodes or cell groups (a master node,
MN, and a secondary node, SN). DC is allowed between two serving nodes operating in the same technology (both NR, both LTE, f or example), or
operating in different radio access technologies (RATs), such as MN operating in LTE while SN is operating in NR, or vice ver sa.

Reason for DC & CA:

When a UE is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE, it’s only required to perform measurements for cell reselection, so that it will keep on camping on a single
cell on the most suitable frequency and RAT. However, during connection setup or resumption towards the cell that the UE is c amping on, neither the
UE, nor the network are aware of the radio conditions towards, for example, other potential cells/carriers that the UE could use for CA and/or DC
operation. There is therefore an additional delay after the UE has transitioned to RRC_CONNECTED, to configure the UE with new measurement
configurations on potential carriers for CA and/or DC, and obtain the measurement results for those, before the UE can be con figured with additional
carriers to operate with CA and/or DC.
 Dual Connectivity Properties:
•Dual Connectivity (DC) allows a UE to simultaneously transmit and receive data on multiple component carriers from two cell groups via
master eNodeB (MN) and secondary eNodeB (SN)
•DC is for non-ideal backhaul, e.g., relatively large delay between nodes
•DC can increase user throughput, provide mobility robustness, and support load-balancing among eNodeBs
•In DC, user traffic is split between carriers in PDCP layer and data bearer is known split bearer
•DC and CA are not mutually exclusive; they can be implemented togther
•In DC, a UE has two C-RNTI: one in MCG and C-RNTI in SCG, it has an always-active cell in MCG and another always-active cell in SCG, and it
has separate PUCCH resource in MCG and SCG
•The configuration between master eNB (MeNB) and secondary eNB (SeNB) is independent, e.g., bandwidth, number of component carriers,
frame structure of each carrier (FDD or TDD), etc.
•In control plane, there is only one S1-MME connection and it is between MME and MeNB.
•RRC connection only terminates at MeNB; there is no RRC entity in SeNB. All SeNB-related RRC configuration is transmitted to MeNB which
then transmits RRC message to UE.
Basic Architecture
In Dual Connectivity, the radio protocol
architecture that a particular bearer uses depends
on how the bearer is setup. Three bearer types
exist: MCG bearer, SCG bearer and split bearer.
RRC is not shown in picture but it is located in
MeNB and SRBs are always configured as MCG
bearer type and therefore only use the radio
resources of the MeNB.
 What define DC?
•Master eNB (MeNB) is the eNB which terminates at least S1-MME or both S1-MME and S1-U
•Secondary eNB (SeNB) is the eNB that is providing additional radio resources
•Master Cell Group is a group of serving cells associated with the MeNB, comprising of the PCell and optionally
one or more Scells
•Secondary Cell Group is a group of serving cells associated with the SeNB, comprising of PCell and optionally
one or more SCells.
•MCG Bearer is a bearer whose radio protocols are only located in the MeNB to use MeNB resources only
•SCG Bearer is a bearer whose radio protocols are only located in the SeNB to use SeNB resources.
•Split Bearer is a bearer whose radio protocols are located in both the MeNB and the SeNB to use both MeNB
and SeNB resources
Control Plane for Dual Connectivity (CP for DC)

Inter-eNB control plane signaling

for DC is done by X2-C interface
signaling and towards MME it is
done by S1-C interface signaling.
There is only one S1-C connection
per DC UE between the MeNB and
the MME. Each eNB should be
able to handle UEs independently,
i.e. provide the PCell to some UEs
while providing SCell(s) for SCG to
others. Each eNB involved in DC
for a certain UE controls its radio
resources and is primarily
responsible for allocating radio
resources of its cells. Respective
coordination between MeNB and
SeNB is performed by X2 interface
signaling.
Early measurement configuration/reporting in LTE Rel-15
Further enhancements of early measurements in Rel-16
 Carrier Aggression (CA) and Dual Connectivity (DC) Comparison

•Carrier aggregation (CA) allows a UE to simultaneous transmit and receive data on multiple component carriers from a single eNodeB
where as Dual Connectivity (DC) allows a UE to simultaneously transmit and receive data on multiple component carriers from two cell
groups via master eNodeB (MN) and secondary eNodeB (SN)
•CA can improves peak rates as well as user throughput at low load and DC can increase user throughput, provide mobility robus tness,
and support load-balancing among eNodeBs
•CA is for the scenarios where the backhaul between nodes is ideal, while DC is for non-ideal backhaul, e.g., relatively large delay between
nodes
•In CA implementation, user traffic is split between carriers in MAC layer, while in DC implementation, it is split in PDCP la yer. In DC, the
data bearer which is split in PDCP is called split bearer.
•CA and DC are not mutually exclusive; instead, they can be jointly implemented for the same UE e.g, there are multiple carriers in the
master cell group (MCG) and multiple carriers in the secondary cell group (SCG)
•A DC UE has two identities: one C-RNTI in MCG and another C-RNTI in SCG, it has an always-active cell in MCG and another always-active
cell in SCG, and it has separate PUCCH resource in MCG and SCG. In CA, there is only one common C-RNTI across all component carriers,
and there is only one PUCCH which is on PCell.
Thank You