B.1 Difference between MAC and RRC control

36.3003GPPEvolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)Overall descriptionRelease 17Stage 2TS

Tools: ARFCN - Frequency Conversion for 5G NR/LTE/UMTS/GSM

The different characteristics of MAC and RRC control are summarized in the table below.

Table B.1-1: Summary of the difference between MAC and RRC control

	MAC control		RRC control
Control entity	MAC		RRC
Signalling	PDCCH	MAC control PDU	RRC message
Signalling reliability	~ 10^-2 (no retransmission)	~ 10^-3 (after HARQ)	~ 10^-6 (after ARQ)
Control delay	Very short	Short	Longer
Extensibility	None or very limited	Limited	High
Security	No integrity protection No ciphering	No integrity protection No ciphering	Integrity protection Ciphering

The main difference between MAC and RRC control lies in the signalling reliability. Due to the signalling reliability, signalling involving state transitions and radio bearer configurations should be performed by RRC. Basically, all signalling performed by RRC in UTRA should also be performed by RRC also for E-UTRA.