EUTRAN

The E-UTRAN consists of eNODEBs which provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane (RRC ) protocol termination toward the user equipment. The eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the X2 interface. The eNBs are also connected by means of the s1 interface to the evolved packet core (EPC).

FUNCTIONS WITHIN THE ACCESS STRATUM:

This provides the ability , infrastructure and accessibility to the UE in acquiring the capabilities and services of the network. The radio access protocols in the E-UTRAN access stratum are comprised of numerous functionalities:

1.     RRM performs radio bearer control, admission and connection mobility control and dynamic allocation of resources to UE’s in both uplink and downlink.

2.     Traffic management in conjuction with RRM supports real and non real time user traffic between UE and architecture side.

LTE network can be divided into control plane which is responsible for managing the transport and user plane which is responsible for transporting user traffic.

USER PLANE PROTOCOLS: this shows the protocol stacks for the user plane where PDCP,RLC,MAC and PHY sublayers perform functions like header compression, ciphering, scheduling.