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5G NR SA Accessibility
Optimization Guide
R1.0
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5G NR SA Accessibility Optimization Guide
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5G NR SA Accessibility Optimization Guide
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5G NR SA Accessibility Optimization Guide
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5G NR SA Accessibility Optimization Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 1
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5G NR SA Accessibility Optimization Guide
FIGURES
TABLES
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1 Overview
In the 5G SA networking mode, the NR access includes the following procedures:
1. Random access: When a UE needs to establish a connection with the network for
some reasons (such as service request, location update, and paging), the UE
performs random access first.
2. RRC connection setup: SRB1 is established for transmitting signaling. The UE enters
the RRC_Connected state after successful establishment. This procedure is a part
of RRC connection management for signaling connection management.
3. UE-dedicated NG connection setup: When an initial UE message is sent to the AMF,
the AMF may trigger a downlink NAS message, an initial context request message
or a context release message. The first UE-level NG-interface message received by
the gNodeB indicates that the UE-specific NG connection has been successfully set
up.
4. NAS: When an initial UE message is sent to the AMF, the AMF selectively performs
some NAS procedures (such as identity authentication and NAS security) according
to the contents carried in the NAS message of the UE. For this part, the base station
only passes through the messages as a channel.
5. Initial context setup: This procedure involves many contents, for example, UE
capability enquiry, security activation, and RRC reconfiguration. This procedure
includes signaling connection management (for example, SRB2 establishment and
UE capability enquiry) and service connection management (for example, PDU
Session setup and DRB setup). Successful establishment of the service bearer
indicates that a NG-U tunnel has been successfully established between two UPFs.
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2 Random Access
Random Access Procedure: The UE sends a random access preamble and attempts to
access the network until a basic signaling connection is established between the UE and
the network. Random access is a very important step in the NR system. A UE establishes
a communication link with the base station through the random access procedure.
1. The UE establishes a connection to the base station through the random access
procedure and achieves uplink synchronization.
2. The UE exchanges information with the base station through the random access
procedure to complete subsequent operations, such as system information
application, resource request, and data transmission.
1. Contention-based.
2. Contention-based-free.
In the NR system, there are 64 available preamble sequences in each cell. In a contention-
based random access procedure, a UE randomly selects one preamble sequence to
initiate a random access procedure toward the network side. Therefore, if multiple UEs
use the same preamble sequence to initiate a random access procedure at the same time,
a conflict occurs, which may cause access failure. The contention-based-free random
access uses the preamble sequence allocated by the base station to initiate the random
access procedure, so that the conflict between preamble sequences of different UEs can
be avoided.
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⚫ Step1: The UE sends a Random Access Preamble message to the gNodeB through
the PRACH.
⚫ Step2: The gNodeB sends a Random Access Response message to the UE in the
RAR time window.
⚫ Step1: The UE sends a dedicated random access preamble to the gNodeB on the
PRACH channel.
⚫ Step2: The gNodeB sends a Random Access Response message to the UE in the
RAR time window RachConfigGeneric.raResponseWindow.
The following table lists the scenarios that may trigger a random access procedure.
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Contention
No. Scenario Triggering Mode
Mechanism
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Procedure:
1. When the UE is powered on, it will detect the SSB of the optimum beam during the
cell search and synchronization process, parse the MIB to obtain the SSB index,
select the PRACH resources according to the PRACH configuration parameters
contained in the SIB message and send a random access preamble.
2. After detecting an MSG1, the base station sends a random access response within
ra-ResponseWindow. The MSG2 PDU contains the preamble index, Timing advance
command, Temporary C-RNTI, and UL grant information.
4. The base station sends an MSG4, that is, RRCConnectionSetup. In the conflict
resolution mechanism, the base station will carry the unique contention resolution ID
of the UE in the MSG4. If the UE receives the contention resolution ID matching the
MSG3, the contention resolution is successful.
1. Upon receiving the downlink data service from the core network (NAS), the base
station triggers the RAN paging process to wake up the UE. After the UE is woken
up by the RAN Paging, it triggers the Resume process to restore the air-interface
connection of the RRC, and the service can be performed normally.
2. If the UE needs to send uplink services, it triggers the Resume process to resume
the air-interface connection of RRC, and the service can be performed normally.
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Procedure description:
4. The base station sends an MSG4, that is, RRCConnectionActivation. In the conflict
resolution mechanism, the base station will carry the unique contention resolution ID
of the UE in the MSG4. If the UE receives the contention resolution ID matching the
MSG3, the contention resolution is successful. The difference from initial access is
that this message is sent on the DCCH.
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1. The UE triggers the RRC connection setup procedure by sending the gNodeB an
RRCSetupRequest message, and starts the waiting timer UeTimer.t300 (the duration
of the T300 timer is sent in the SIB1 through the broadcast message). Upon receiving
this message, the gNodeB performs UE resource admission.
3. After the UE completes the SRB1 configuration, it replies to the gNB with an
RRCSetupComplete message, which indicates that the RRC connection setup
procedure is completed successfully.
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Parameter UeTimer.t300
Short
T300
Name
This parameter specifies the timer length for the UE to wait for the
RRC connection response. When the UE sends an RRC connection
request message, the T300 timer will be started. Before the timer
expires, if any of the following events occurs, the timer will stop.
1. The UE receives an RRCConnectionSetup or
RRCConnectionReject message.
2. The cell-reselection procedure is triggered.
Description
3. The NAS layer terminates the RRC connection setup procedure.
If the timer expires, the UE will trigger the following operations:
1. Reset the MAC layer.
2. Release the MAC layer configuration.
3. Reset all the RLC entities that have established radio bears (RBs)
and notify the upper-layer network elements of the RRC connection
setup failure.
Value
100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000
Range
Default
600
Value
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1. The gNodeB sends an InitialUEMessage message to the AMF, carrying the RAN UE
NGAP ID allocated by the gNodeB, NAS PDU, location information and access
reason.
2. Upon receiving the InitialUEMessage message, the AMF decides a series of optional
NAS processes (such as identity authentication and NAS security) according to the
carried information. And it determines whether to initiate or release a context
according to the service request of the UE. Therefore, the first downlink NG-interface
message sent by the AMF may be a DOWNLINK NAS TRANSPORT,
InitialContextSetupRequest or UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMMAND message,
which may carry the AMF UE NGAP ID allocated by the AMF. When the gNodeB
and the AMF respectively have a unique identifier, it is deemed that the UE-dedicated
NG connection (signaling connection) is set up successfully, and the gNodeB can
communicate with the AMF normally.
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5 NAS Procedure
1. The AMF sends the downlink NAS PDU to the gNodeB through the DOWNLINK NAS
TRANSPORT message.
2. The gNodeB forwards the downlink NAS PDU to the UE through the
DLInformationTransfer message.
1. The UE sends the uplink NAS PDU to the gNodeB through the
ULInformationTransfer message.
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2. The gNodeB forwards the uplink NAS PDU to the AMF through the UPLINK NAS
TRANSPORT message.
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6 UE Capability Enquiry
Some functions and parameter configurations of the gNodeB are limited by the UE
capability, so the UE capability enquiry procedure is necessary. The gNodeB saves the
UE capability enquiry result as a basis for decision making and sends it to the AMF for
storage.
1. Upon receiving the RRCSetupComplete message from the gNodeB, the RRC
connection setup is completed and the enquiry is initiated.
2. Upon receiving the INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message sent by the
AMF, the gNodeB judges whether to initiate the UE capability enquiry procedure. If
the INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message carries the UE capability
information, the enquiry is not initiated. Otherwise, the enquiry is initiated.
The protocol only describes Case 2, but the gNodeB can optimize the implementation
selectively. If the optimization switch GlobalSwitchInformation.ueCapOptimizeSwitch is
turned on, select Mode 1, which happens at the same time with the sending of the initial
UE message to the AMF, so as to accelerate the whole access procedure.
1. The gNodeB sends a UECapabilityEnquiry message to the UE, carrying a list of the
radio access type to be queried, such as nr, eutra-nr, and eutra.
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When the RRC connection between the gNB and the UE has been set up, if the gNB
needs to reconfigure the RRC connection due to the addition/deletion of SRB2, DRB,
measurement, or a secondary cell, or other configuration changes, it will send an
RRCReconfiguration message to the UE, instructing the UE to use the new RRC
connection configuration. In addition, this message may carry UE-dedicated NAS
information.
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8 DRB Setup
For service bearers in a 5G network, NGU tunnels and DRBs do not correspond to each
other in a one-to-one way. The concept of PDU session has been introduced. One UE
may have multiple PDU sessions at the same time. One PDU session corresponds to
multiple DRBs, but one DRB does not correspond to multiple DRBs. Each PDU session
has a default DRB. The following figure shows the relationship between the PDU session,
QoS flow and DRB.
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1. The AMF sends an INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message to trigger the
UE context setup process, carrying the information such as the security, UE radio
capability (optional), and PDU Session Setup List (optional).
2. Upon receiving the INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message, the gNodeB
performs the SRB2 setup, security activation, UE capability enquiry (optional) and
PDU session setup (optional) procedures. Security activation and UE capability
enquiry are described separately. This section focuses on the SRB2 and DRB setup
after security activation. After security activation, signaling transmission on SRB1 is
encrypted and protected for integrity. For SRB2 setup, the local and air interfaces
can be configured if resource admission is successful. For DRB setup, the mapping
between the QoS Flow and the DRB should be performed first. Only when the
mapping and resource admission are successful and a downlink GTPU tunnel at the
level of PDU session is established, can the local and air interfaces be configured.
Air interface configuration is performed through the RRCReconfiguration message,
which carries a list of the SRBs and DRBs to be set up and the related resources. If
the initial context is successfully set up, the gNodeB will reply to the AMF with an
INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP RESPONSE message, which may carry a list of the failed
PDU sessions. Otherwise, the gNodeB will send an INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP
FAILURE message.
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1. The gNodeB receives the PDU SESSION RESOURCE SETUP REQUEST message
from the AMF. This message carries a list of the PDU sessions to be set up, and
each PDU session contains a list of the QoS flows to be set up. The gNodeB first
needs to perform mapping between the QoS flow and DRB (here, DRB setup). After
the mapping and resource admission are successful and a downlink GTPU tunnel at
the level of PDU session is established, the local and air interfaces can be configured.
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1. Signaling 620-626: RRC connection setup, including the random access procedure.
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− Check whether each board and the AAU are in a normal state and whether the
cell is working.
− Check whether the cell has any alarm and analyze the alarm. If there is an alarm,
notify ZTE product support engineers to handle it.
2. When the cell is in a normal state, analyze the access problem. The UE’s access
procedure can be divided into four phases:
i. Random access.
The analysis is performed phase by phase and the process is similar to that of LTE.
1. Check the OSS KPI statistics: if the number of times that the random access
preamble of GroupA or GroupB is successfully detected in the cell is 0, there must
be some problem with the cell in the random access phase.
2. Check the background statistics: if many MSG1 and MSG2 are successfully detected
but meanwhile many MSG3 and MSG4 are not detected successfully (or the number
of successfully detected MSG3 and MSG4 is nearly zero), there must be some
problem with the cell in the random access phase.
3. Analyze the foreground test results: in the RRC access phase, if only a large number
of RRCconnectionRequest messages are seen but there are no subsequent access
messages, there must be some problem with the cell in the random access phase.
1. Analyze and check whether the PRACH logical root sequence is reused.
2. Analyze whether it is possible that the Ncs value is set too small.
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3. Analyze whether the MSG1 false detection suppression threshold is not sufficiently
set.
4. Check whether the optical module configuration and the optical fiber distance meet
the engineering requirements.
1. If the base station sends an RRC rejection message rather than an RRC Connection
Setup message, it is likely that there is some problem at the base station side. The
possible causes include that:
ii. The CPU usage of the base station has an over-high upper limit.
2. The base station sends an RRC Connection Setup message but does not receive an
RRC Connection Complete message. The possible causes include that:
iii. The cell capacity level indication is set to an over-small value, or the SR channel
capacity is too small.
iv. The reselection parameters for the camp state are not reasonable, and the UE
fails to reselect a proper serving cell in time.
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1. Upon receiving the Initial Context Setup Request message, if the eNB directly replies
with a setup failure message, the possible causes include that:
i. The ERAB admission fails, probably due to the ERAB admission threshold or
insufficient licenses.
ii. The UE capability carried by the AMF conflicts with that at the RAN side, for
example, the UE initiates access in a cell, but the UE capability sent from the
MME indicates that the UE does not support the frequency band.
iii. The UE capability information is too long and exceeds the upper limit of the
base station version.
2. If the SRB/DRB setup fails during the encryption and integrity protection on the air
interface, it is necessary to check the encryption and integrity protection algorithms
set at the base station side and set them according to the technical notice.
3. Another common case is that during the SRB/DRB setup, the base station performs
RRC reconfiguration for the UE, but the reconfiguration fails, resulting in an
SRB/DRB setup failure. The possible causes include:
ii. There is some problem with the system version of the base station.
iii. There is some problem with the physical configuration of the base station.
4. In addition, in the phase of PDU session setup and SRB/DRB setup, the air-interface
quality should be guaranteed, because if the air-interface link quality is very poor, the
access should have failed in the phase of RRC connection setup. However,
occasionally the messages on the air interface may have no response, so the
following actions should be taken:
iii. Check whether the cell capacity level indication is set to an over-small value, or
whether the SR channel capacity is too small.
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11.1 Case 1
Problem Description
After the SA equipment in the SA area was upgraded to V2.00.20.01P08, the access was
successful, but the PING service kept failing due to request timeout, and the problem
persisted after the CPE was restarted.
Problem Analysis
ZTE colleagues at the core network side traced the signaling and found that the core
network responded to the uplink PING packet and sent the response to the base station,
but the CPE side did not received it. ZTE colleagues at the base station side traced the
signaling and found that the CU side received the response from the core network and set
it to the DU side. It was suspected that the CPE failed to identify the MAC address of the
testing laptop.
Optimization Solution
The engineers bound the MAC address of the testing laptop with the CPE: Telnet to
192.254.1.16, pad to the Product process, and type in SetPcMAC 0x68,0x
F7,0x28,0x85,0xDB,0x3B.
E0-B9-4D-B1-BC-91 was the MAC address of the PC network card directly connected to
the CPE-Debug port. Please note that 0x is the number 0 and the lower case letter x.
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The command for querying the MAC address in the process is PcMAC.
Optimization Effect
The engineers bound the MAC address of the testing laptop with the CPE, and restarted
the CPE after powering it off. Then the PING service became normal. This error appeared
occasionally, and it was unnecessary to bind the MAC address for every test.
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11.2 Case 2
Problem Description
After the SA equipment in the SA area was upgraded to V2.00.20.01P08, the CSI
information displayed on the KPI tab under Statistics on the LMT was null.
Problem Analysis
Because the UE could access the cell properly and SSB-related information could be
displayed properly, it was preliminarily concluded that CSI-related measurement was
disabled.
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Optimization Solution
The engineers checked the background parameter configuration and found that the
csiRsEnable parameter value was set to false.
Optimization Effect
The engineers changed the csiRsEnable parameter value from false to true, and then
the CSI information could be displayed normally.
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