Radio Link Failure

LTE RAN
 Triggering points of RLF
1. Upon indication from RLC that the maximum number of re
transmissions has been reached
2. Upon expiry of Timer T310 (this timer is started when physical
layer problems are detected i.e. upon receiving N310
consecutive out-of-sync indications from lower layers)
3. Upon random access problem indication from MAC while
neither T300, T301, T304 nor T311 is running
4. Upon handover failure (UE timer t304 expiry)

In all 4 cases the UE is allowed to perform RRC connection reestablishment though

Triggering points of RLF
 Downlink Out-Of-Synch
How do we determine if the Radio Link is out of Synch?

The full procedure for determining if the link has failed due to being out of sync is shown in the figure
below. In the picture, there are three parameters shown:

n310: This parameter indicates the number of 200 ms intervals when the UE is unable to
successfully decode the PDCCH due to low RSRP detected. That is, this parameter indicates the
number of times in which the UE cannot successfully decode 20 consecutive frames in the
downlink.

t310: It is a timer, in seconds, used to allow the UE to get back in synchronization with the eNodeB.

n311: This parameter indicates the number of 100 ms intervals that the UE must successfully
decode the PDCCH to be back in-synch with the eNodeB. That is, this parameter indicates the
number of times in which the UE must successfully decode 10 consecutive frames in the downlink
in order for the UE to assume the radio link is in-synch.

If the UE detects n310 consecutive out-of-sync indications, it starts the t310 timer. If the timer expires, the
link has failed. If the UE detects n311 consecutive in-sync indications prior to the t310 timer expiring, then
the timer is stopped and the link has not failed.
Expiry of t310 (Out-Of-Synch)

So what happens after the UE detects that the link failed?

If the UE determines that the Radio Link fails, the UE will try to
reconnect with an RRC Connection Reestablishment Request
message. There are a number of cases that could occur
based on vendor implementation.
 rrc MO
t301 and t311 are
duplicated in RlfProfile
MO as well

For RlfProfile settings to be applicable then the attribute rlfPriority on MO QciProfilePredefined

and/or QciProfileOperatorDefined has to be set to a higher value than 0. When the bearer is
established its QCI value will decide which RlfProfile it will use.
As long as all the QCIs used for a UE have a rlfPriority = 0, the value from the legacy Rrc=1 MO
will be used.
As soon as any of the QCIs used for a UE have a rlfPriority > 0, the value from Rlfprofile will be
used instead.
The QCI with the highest rlfPriority steers which RlfProfile that is used.
 rrc MO
t300 = 1000 { 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 } UE timer to supervise a response to RRC Connection Request (according to 3GPP TS
36.331). Provided to the UE by System Information.
Unit: 1 ms

t301 = 400 { 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 } UE timer to supervise a response to RRC Connection Reestablishment Request
(according to 3GPP TS 36.331), during a radio connection re-establishment procedure. The UE returns to Idle and optionally starts to reconnect
over NAS when the timer expires. Provided to the UE by System Information.
Unit: 1 ms

t304 = 1000 { 50, 100, 150, 200, 500, 1000, 2000 } UE timer to supervise successful handover completion according to 3GPP TS 36.331.
Unit: 1 ms

t311 = 3000 { 1000, 3000, 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 30000 } UE timer triggered at radio link failure to supervise the period where the UE tries
to re-establish the radio connection, either by performing RRC Connection Reestablishment (according to 3GPP TS 36.331), or by finding a
suitable cell on another RAT. The UE returns to Idle and optionally starts to reconnect over NAS when the timer expires. Provided to the UE by
System Information.
Unit: 1 ms

t320 = 30 { 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, 120, 180 } Validity time for cell reselection priority information provided by dedicated signaling. Used by the UE.
Unit: 1 min

tRrcConnectionReconfiguration = 6 { 1..20 } Waiting time for the RRC message RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete. Used by the RBS.
Unit: 1 s

tRrcConnReest = 1 { 1..20 } Waiting time for the RRC message RRC Connection Reestablishment Complete. Used by the RBS.
Unit: 1 s

tWaitForRrcConnReest = 6 { 1..20 } Waiting time for the RRC message RRC Connection Reestablishment Request upon detecting Radio Link
Failure. Used by the RBS.
Unit: 1 s
rlfProfile MO

rlfProfile (by default 0

only) is reservedBy all
10 Qcis by default
 rlfProfile MO
n310 = 20 { 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20 } Maximum number of consecutive "out of sync" indications received from lower layers.

n311 = 1 { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 } Maximum number of consecutive "in-sync" indications received from lower layers.

reservedBy Contains a list of QciProfile instances that reserve this MO instance.

t301 = 400 { 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 } UE timer to supervise a response to RRC Connection
Reestablishment Request (according to 3GPP TS 36.331), during a radio connection re-establishment procedure. The UE
returns to Idle and optionally starts to reconnect over NAS when the timer expires.
Unit: 1 ms

t310 = 2000 { 0, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000 } Waiting time for radio link failure. Used by the UE.
Unit: 1 ms

t311 = 3000 { 1000, 3000, 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 30000 } UE timer triggered at radio link failure to supervise the
period where the UE tries to re-establish the radio connection, either by performing RRC Connection Reestablishment
(according to 3GPP TS 36.331), or by finding a suitable cell on another RAT. The UE returns to Idle and optionally starts to
reconnect over NAS when the timer expires.
Unit: 1 ms
Handover Ue timer t304
 RRC Connection
Re-establishment
T311 is generally set to 10 seconds while T301 is set to 200ms/400ms.
T311 is just for cell selection so why is it configured to this high value ? Does the UE
needs all this time to make cell selection ?

T311 is for RRC reestablishment i.e. finding a suitable cell, so it requires time. Once
suitable cell is found T311 is stopped and T301 is started which is for RRC re-
connection Establishment request which ideally should be a faster event.

T311 is started when re-establishment procedure is initiated and the UE starts

searching for a suitable cell.
T301 is stared if the UE finds a suitable LTE cell and transmits the
RRCConnectionReestablishmentRequest message.

Ref: 3GPP TS 36.331 (see e.g. chapter 7.3).

 RRC Connection
Re-establishment
 RRC Connection
Re-establishment