UE CAPABILITIES

VERIFICATION
Procedure

Abstract
Outlines the procedures to read and verify the UE capabilities using the R&S CMW500 RF Tester
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Objective ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Requirements................................................................................................................................................ 2
Procedure...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Step 1 – CMW500 Setup: .......................................................................................................................... 3
Step 2 – Perform an Attach: ...................................................................................................................... 4
Step 3 – Read the UE Capabilities from the CMW500: ............................................................................. 0
Supported Band List EUTRA .................................................................................................................. 0
Supported Band Combinations ............................................................................................................. 0
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Decoded RRC Messages samples .............................................................................................................. 3
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Introduction
UE Radio Access Capabilities information is sent over an RRC message in response to the RRC UE
Capability Enquiry request from the Network (eNB). This occurs during the initial registration procedure.
This information will be used by the Network for DRBs, MAC and PHY parameters configuration. The
Network indicates the RAT for which it is requesting the capabilities. An example of the content of both
messages, enquiry – response, can be found in the appendix of this document for reference purposes.

The UE will indicate among others:

- Access Stratum (AS) Release,

- UE category,
- Supported Header Compression (ROHC -profiles),
- Tx Antenna configuration (MIMO configurations),
- Supported bands (according to the requested RAT),
- Carrier Aggregation (CA) available combinations, if supported, and
- RF measurements capabilities.

Why do we spend time verifying this? It is important verify the UE capabilities before spend time and
effort troubleshooting issues related to feature(s) which are not supported or yet enabled on the UE.

The trace of the RRC messages can be available from the device’s LOGs which are obtained using tools
like QXDM or alike. When such tools are not available to the tester, the following procedure can be used
instead.

Objective
The present document outlines the requirements and procedures to verify the UE capabilities using the
R&S CMW500 RF tester.

Requirements
- R&S CMW500 RF Tester
- RF cables and connectors (We assume this procedure is executed in conducted mode)
- R&S testing mode SIM card
- DUT with labeled RF ports.
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Procedure
As previously stated, the UE capabilities message is sent by the UE during RRC initial registration. The
basic idea, for the procedure outlined here, is to attach the DUT to the CMW500. The CMW will retrieve
the device’s capabilities information. The tester, then, will be able to verify and validate it.

NOTE: The following is an example. Values and parameters are for illustration purposes only.

Step 1 – CMW500 Setup:

Start and configure the CMW500 - LTE signaling module for UE to be attached in LTE according to your
Network parameters like Band, Channel, BW, RS Power and modulation scheme (see Figure 1)

Almost all the testing scenarios require the UE to perform an ATTACH procedure so, this step should be
straight forward.

Once you have set up the environment, turn on the CMW LTE Signaling module (eNB) then, power cycle
the UE or, perform an Airplane Mode (AM) ON/OFF switching for the UE to acquire the Network and
initiate the ATTACH procedure.

Figure 1 - Example of LTE signaling module setup

UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Step 2 – Perform an Attach:

On the CMW500, you’ll observe the “Connection Status” goes from “RRC Idle” to “RRC Connected”.

Under the “Event Log” section, there is a drop-down menu. Use it to select “UE capabilities” to display
the retrieved values bellow.

Figure 2 - Connection Status, Event Log and Info sections

You can maximize this section (UE Capabilities) to navigate and explore each item.

Figure 3 - UE capabilities information retrieved by the CMW50

Step 3 – Read the UE Capabilities from the CMW500:
Verify the Information Elements (IEs) contained in the message and, check if they meet your network requirements accordingly.

The information provided by the UE is packed In RAT specific containers. In the example below, we breakdown some of the elements to illustrate
how to interpret them. We have focused in some of the LTE specific IEs. For a detailed list of the capabilities and their required values, refer to
the “AMX features compliance” document.

NOTE: The analysis of the information contained in the UE capabilities message must be contrasted against the results in the test cases executed
during the homologation process.

IE Definition Reported value: Requested by your Network* Passed?

This parameter defines the release of
the E-UTRA layer 1, 2, and 3
Access Stratum Release
specifications supported by the UE e.g.
Release 11 12 Yes
Rel-8, Rel-9, etc.
Defines a combined Uplink and
UE Cat. Downlink capability as specified in 12 10 Yes
3GPP TS36.306.
Indicates which ROHC profiles are
supported from the list bellow
according to the 3GPP TS-36.306:

- 0x0000 ROHC uncompressed (RFC 4995)

- 0x0001 ROHC RTP (RFC 3095, RFC 4815)
- 0x0002 ROHC UDP (RFC 3095, RFC 4815) 0x0001
- 0x0003 ROHC ESP (RFC 3095, RFC 4815) 0x0002
- 0x0004 ROHC IP (RFC 3843, RFC 4815)
0x0001
PDCP (ROHC) - 0x0006 ROHC TCP (RFC 4996) (IMS capable UEs supporting voice shall support ROHC Yes
- 0x0101 ROHCv2 RTP (RFC 5225) 0x0002 profiles 0x0000, 0x0001, 0x0002 and be able to
- 0x0102 ROHCv2 UDP (RFC 5225) compress and decompress headers of PDCP SDUs at a
- 0x0103 ROHCv2 ESP (RFC 5225) PDCP SDU rate corresponding to supported IMS voice
- 0x0104 ROHCv2 IP (RFC 5225) codecs)

A UE that supports one or more of the

listed ROHC profiles shall support ROHC
profile 0x0000 ROHC uncompressed
(RFC 4995).
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Rf-Parameters
Defines which E-UTRA radio frequency
bands are supported by the UE. For 1, 4, 28, 2, 7, 3, 5, 8, 12,
each band, support either half-duplex 13, 17, 20, 25, 26, 41, 66.
supportedBandListEUTRA operation, or full-duplex operation is
LIST of AMX LTE designated bands Yes
Go to next section for The values listed here depend on the operator’s
indicated. For TDD, the half-duplex more details on this IE. available spectrum, allocation scheme by RAT, etc.
indication is not applicable.
* Refer to latest “AMX features compliance” document
Supported Band List EUTRA
Under RF parameters, you can verify the list of Supported Bands as displayed in Figure 4. The table’s
columns indicate the UE support for half duplex mode, 256QAM downlink modulation scheme and
64QAM for the uplink.

Figure 4 - View of supported LTE bands table.

Supported Band Combinations

This element is a little more complex. It defines, as the name suggests, the carrier aggregation, MIMO
and MBMS reception capabilities supported by the UE for configurations with inter-band, intra-band
non-contiguous, intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation and without carrier aggregation.

By default, the CMW500 shows only 5 entries in the table so, you’ll need to change the number to the
maximum allowed in order to see all the supported combinations the UE reports. In our case that
number is 47. Check out the Figure 5 for details.

Figure 5- Changing the number of showed CA combinations

By expanding the BW combination item, you’ll see a table like those in Figure 6 and Figure 7. The rows
represent the combination index, beginning from 0, and, the columns represent the CC index being the
first column the PCC, the second is the SCC and so on. The last column is the BW combination set. For
more detail on the
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Figure 6 - List of supported Band Combinations for CA (1)

Figure 7 - List of supported Band Combinations for CA (2)

UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Depending on how deep you want to analyze the information, you would like to explore the details as
displayed in the Figure 8. The table shows additional information for each CA band configuration case
like the BW Class (A, B, C, etc.).

Figure 8 - CA band combination in detail.

Let’s check the case for combination index 16 and 17. Basically, the table states the following:

- Combination 16: Two component carriers (CCs), using band 17 and 4. MIMO 2x2 is supported in
both DL channels. Notice how Uplink channels is not aggregating more carriers. It uses only one
CC in band 17 bandwidth class A with no MIMO support.
- Combination 17: Two CCs. Just the same that in the previous combination. The difference is the
uplink carrier which uses band 4 instead band 17.
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

Appendix
Decoded RRC Messages samples
NW  UE

Interpreted PDU:

value DL-DCCH-Message ::=

{
message c1 : ueCapabilityEnquiry :
{
rrc-TransactionIdentifier 0,
criticalExtensions c1 : ueCapabilityEnquiry-r8 :
{
ue-CapabilityRequest
{
eutra,
utra,
geran-cs
}
}
}
}
UE Capabilities verification using the R&S CMW500

UE  NW

Interpreted PDU:

value UL-DCCH-Message ::=

{
message c1 : ueCapabilityInformation :
{
rrc-TransactionIdentifier 0,
criticalExtensions c1 : ueCapabilityInformation-r8 :
{
ue-CapabilityRAT-ContainerList
{
{
rat-Type eutra,
ueCapabilityRAT-Container
'CD9800F0019B02181040E2C6102660CA87E3E7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7
FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FE7FFFF91FF9FFFFE47FDFF3FFAFA208008C870CA74A92A3F56FC00000000
040979E0002025F800000012B800080141002080104008200410020801040080082004100208010400820041002080104008200400410020841
04018018018400021000082004100210000840002002000FAA0CF00005C0600002001860008006D800200182000800630002001840008006200
020018E00080065800200198000800680002001A60008006C0002001B2000800740002081FE000800E800020218400540206180020039600080
8610014B08186000800E200020218400510206180020038600080861000C300048076C00101182002B610318001001D000040410800A8040C10
0040072C001010420029610304001001C400040410800A2040C10004007040010104200182000900EC000202C04007A000105A02003D000080D
01040E80004903A0041242CB00040430808610024B0818600080861001CB00040430900A5840C3000480B2C00101042020840092C2060800202
084003A0041300E80004C5D3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF2
3FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23
FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23F
F3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF3FFFFC8FFCFFFFF23FF
3FFFFC8FFA01200007E4402600002201200002E000025FE5FE1E1E1E1E1E1C8BC5E1E1C8787878FE3F00EB80000000000000000000000000000
000404100401004010040100004010040100401004010040001004010000008008004010080080000092200F995A60193FFFFFFFFF37D2E0000
00000004005902002C800'H
},
{
rat-Type utra,
ueCapabilityRAT-Container
'40000390CAAB541A955AA22920C112000600054384271CFBE669AED97284E39F7CCD35DB2F509C73EF99A6BB65E2138E7DF334D76CB73D011B
C410A438F5E9A19A6BB65B003203A038037AB4C00001A497F489B36E0F0106143891A3CB99429D8B36F46D40'H
},
{
rat-Type geran-cs,
ueCapabilityRAT-Container '33035758A6601404E2918102121E40'H
},
{
rat-Type geran-ps,
ueCapabilityRAT-Container '1AB3432B259662044000D800BBC8C662044000D800A3C2C662044000D80000'H
}
}
}
}
}

As you can see, the container for EUTRA is very large. This is the result of an even more complex
technology like LTE. Look at the complete decoded text for more details in the following embedded file

UE-cap-decoded.txt