LTE RACH Procedure

When RACH Process Happens ?

• Initial access from RRC_IDLE
• RRC Connection Re-establishment procedure
• Handover (Contention Based or Non Contention Based)
• DL data arrival during RRC_CONNECTED requiring random access
procedure
– E.g. when UL synchronization status is “non-synchronised”
• UL data arrival during RRC_CONNECTED requiring random access
procedure
– E.g. when UL synchronization status is "non-synchronised" or there are no PUCCH
resources for SR available.
• For positioning purpose during RRC_CONNECTED requiring random access
procedure;
– E.g. when timing advance is needed for UE positioning
 Two types of RACH process
• Contention-based
– i) UE --> NW : RACH Preamble (RA-RNTI, indication for L2/L3 message size)
– ii) UE <-- NW : Random Access Response (Timing Advance, T_C-RNTI, UL grant for L2/L3
message)
– iii) UE --> NW : L2/L3 message
– iv) Message for early contention resolution
• Contention-free
– i) UE <--NW : RACH Preamble (PRACH) Assignment
– ii) UE --> NW : RACH Preamble (RA-RNTI, indication for L2/L3 message size)
– iii) UE <--NW : Random Access Response (Timing Advance, C-RNTI, UL grant for L2/L3
message)
SIB 2
preamble format
prach-ConfigIndex
rootsequenceIndex
rootsequenceIndex
RACH Procedure during Initial
Registration
UE
• The RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH in which the Random Access Preamble is
transmitted, is computed as:
RA-RNTI = 1 + t_id + 10 * f_id
Where t_id is the index of the first subframe of the specified PRACH (0 <≤ t_id <10),
and f_id is the index of the specified PRACH within that subframe, in ascending
order of frequency domain (0≤ f_id< 6).

In case FDD there is a maximum of one set of resource blocks allocated to the
PRACH within each subframe so f_id always equals 0 and equation simplifies to
RA-RNTI = 1 + t_id
Therefore, RA_RNTI is decided by the sending timing (SubFrame) of PRACH
Preamble by UE. It means that (the subframe number (number between
0000~0009) of PRACH transmission + 1) is RA-RNTI.

It means that UE specifies RA_RNTI by the sending timing (SubFrame) of PRACH

Preamble.
• The UE checks each subframe within the search window for PDCCH whose CRC bits have
been scrambled by the relevant RA-RNTI. There is one-to-one mapping between RA-RNTI and
the time/frequency resources used by the PRACH preamble.
• If the UE finds a PDCCH whose CRC bit have been scrambled by its RA-RNTI then it proceeds
to read the contents of the Downlink control information(DCI) within the PDCCH.
• DCI formats 1A and 1C can have their CRC bits scrambled by an RA-RNTI.
• The downlink resource allocation information is read to identify the position of the random
access response (RAR) within the PDSCH of that subframe.
• Timing advance information is to ensure that subsequent UE transmissions are synchronized
with other UE when arriving at the eNode B.
• Uplink grant information to allocate uplink resource blocks to the UE for transmission on the
PUSCH. for example when establishing an RRC Connection, this allocation allows the UE to
transmit the RRC Connection request message.
• A temporary C-RNTI which becomes the CRNTI after successful completion of the random
access procedure for RRC Connection establishment and RRC Connection re-establishment.
• The initial layer 3 message can be trasmitted using either the CCCH or DCCH logical channels:
– RRC connection establishement : RRC Connection request message is sent using the
CCCH.
– RRC Connection re-establishement: RRC Connection re-establishment message is sent
using the CCCH.
– Intra-system handover: RRC connection reconfiguration complete message is sent using
the DCCH
PDCCH RA-RNTI Monitoring

• 3ms/sub-frames after RACH transmission

sub-frame, UE will start monitoring the PDCCH
channel for RA-RNTI for a duration of RA-
Response window.
• If the UE does not find a PDCCH with its RA_RNTI
within the response window, or if the UE finds a PDCCH
with its RA-RNTI but the associated RAR within the
PDSCH does not include any information addressed to
the UE, then the UE:
• Increment the value of preamble counter by 1
• Checks whether or not the maximum allowed number
of preamble transmissions has been reached.
• The UE exists the random access procedure if the
maximum number of transmissions has been reached.
• The maximum allowed number of transmissions is
broadcast within SIB2,
 Hopping Flag
• This is 1 bit of information which governs
whether frequency hopping is enabled or not.
If the value of the bit is 1 and resource block
assignment is type 0 , UE should perform
PUSCH frequency hopping.
 RIV(Resource Indication Value)
• It is 10 bits of information embedded
in UL Grant message.
• we can represent Number of RBs and
Start RB in a single value.
• Number of RBs (L_CRB) & Max UL
RB’s (NULRB) & Start RB (Rb_start)
• L_CRB = Floor (RIV/NULRB) + 1
• Rb_start = RIV mod NULRB
Modulation and Coding scheme to be
used by UE
 Power used by UE for PUSCH
• It is indicated in 3 bits as a TPC command
whose value varies from 0 to 7. TPC command
to power mapping is mentioned in table
below
• UL delay
– 1 bit of information which can be set to 0 or 1. It
indicates whether the delay of PUSCH is
introduced or not
• CSI field
– This 1 bit of information determines whether an
aperiodic CQI, PMI and RI report can be included
in the PUSCH transmission. For contention based
Random access CSI field is reserved.
 Contention Resolution
• If UE successfully receives Random Access
Resonse (RAR) on RA-RNTI and contains the
same preamble index in the received RAPID.
If Preamble index was provide by eNB, RACH
procedure ended and is considered as successful
else UE proceeds to contention resolution
procedure.
– apply Timing Advancement Command (TAC)
– update the Temp C-RNTI to the value received (only in
case of contention resolution process)
– use the received UL grant for transmitting msg3 (only
in case of contention resolution process)
 Contention Resolution Procedure
• Contention resolution procedure is applicable
only if preamble index is selected by UE. UE
starts/restarts contention resolution timer for
transmission of msg3 or non-adaptive HARQ re-
transmisssion of msg3. After transmission of
msg3, UE will monitor the PDCCH channel for C-
RNTI/Temp C-RNTI till contention resolution timer
is expired irrespective of the measurement gap.
• If UE receives data notification on PDCCH channel
and
• If C-RNTI MAC CE was included in the msg3 and if
RACH was due to PDCCH order and PDCCH
transmission was addressed to C-RNTI or if RACH
was triggered by MAC itself and PDCCH
transmission was addressed to C-RNTI and
contains UL grant for new transmission
– consider Contention resolution as successful.
– stop contention resolution timer
– discard Temp C-RNTI
– RACH procedure is considered successful.
• Else if msg3 was CCCH data and UE receives
PDCCH transmission addressed to Temp C-
RNTI and MAC PDU decodes successfully and
contains the contention resolution id in msg3.
– consider Contention resolution as successful.
– stop contention resolution timer
– set C-RNTI to Temp C-RNTI.
– discard Temp C-RNTI
– RACH procedure is considered successful.
• Else consider contention resolution is not successful.
• If contention resolution timer expires, contention
resolution is not successful.
• If contention resolution is not successful then
– if time alignment timer is running, stop the time alignment
timer
– flush HARQ buffer used for msg3
– increment PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNT by 1
– if PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNT is PreambleTransMax +1,
indicate RACH problem to upper layers.
– UE will select a random back off time from 0 to back off
parameter before going to retry RACH procedure.
 non-contention based random access
procedure
• The non-contention based random access procedure avoids the possibility of
multiple UE selecting the same PRACH resource (subframe and preamble
sequence).

• This is achieved by the eNode B instructing the UE to use a specific resource which
is outside the pool available to UE completing the contention based random access
procedure, i.e, some of the 64 preamble sequences can be reserved for allocation
by the eNode B.

• There are two possibilities for the non-contention based random access
procedure.

– Intra-system handover: the PRACH resource is signalled to the UE within an RRC Connection
reconfiguration message. The initial layer 3 is an RRC Connection reconfiguration complete
message on the DCCH logical channel.

– Arrival of downlink data while non-synchronised: the PRACH resource is signalled to the UE
within a downlink control information(DCI) format 1A PDCCH. The initial layer 3 message is an
uplink information transfer message on the DCCH logical channel.