5 Xw interface user plane protocol

36.4643GPPEvolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)Release 17TSXw data transport

5.1 General

The transport layer for data streams over Xw is an IP based Transport. The following figure shows the transport protocol stacks over Xw.

Figure 5.1: Transport network layer for data streams over Xw

The GTP-U (TS 29.281 [2]) protocol over UDP over IP shall be supported as the transport for data streams on the Xw interface. The data link layer is as specified in clause 4.

For LWA bearers, there may be one UL data stream and there may be one DL data stream per E-RAB at the Xw interface. For LWIP bearers, there may be one UL data stream and there may be one DL data stream per UE at the Xw interface.

– The DL data stream is used for DL user data forwarding from the eNB to the WT.

– The UL data stream is used for carrying the UL flow control feedback (if flow control is supported) and for UL user data forwarding from the WT to the eNB.

Each data stream is carried on a dedicated transport bearer.

If supported, the WT may use the DRB Identifier in the LWA PDU header of the UL data stream to identify the dedicated UL transport bearer.

The identity of a transport bearer signalled in the RNL control plane consists of the IP address and the TEID of the corresponding GTP tunnel, allocated by the target node (see TS 29.281 [2]).

5.2 GTP-U

The GTP-U (TS 29.281 [2]) protocol shall be used over the Xw interface between eNB and WT.

5.3 UDP/IP

The path protocol used shall be UDP (IETF RFC 768 [3]).

The UDP port number for GTP-U shall be as defined in TS 29.281 [2].

The eNB and the WT over the Xw interface shall support fragmentation and assembly of GTP packets at the IP layer.

The eNB and the WT shall support IPv6 (IETF RFC 2460 [5]) and/or Ipv4 (IETF RFC 791 [6]).

LWA:

There may be one or several IP addresses in both the eNB and the WT. The packet processing function in the source eNB shall send downstream packets corresponding toa given E-RAB to the target WT IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the DL transport bearer of that particular E-RAB. The packet processing function in the source WT shall send upstream packets corresponding to a given E-RAB to the target eNB IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the UL transport bearer of that particular E-RAB or the E-RAB with the lowest E-RAB ID.

LWIP:

There may be one or several IP addresses in both the eNB and the LWIP-SeGW. The packet processing function in the source eNB shall send downstream packets corresponding to a given LWIP bearer to the target LWIP-SeGW IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the DL transport bearer of that particular GTP-U TEID. The packet processing function in the source LWIP-SeGW shall send upstream packets corresponding to a given UE to the target eNB IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the UL transport bearer of that particular GTP-U TEID.

The Transport Layer Address signalled in XwAP messages is a bit string of either

a) 32 bits in case of Ipv4 address according to IETF RFC 791 [6]; or

b) 128 bits in case of Ipv6 address according to IETF RFC 2460 [5].

5.4 Diffserv code point marking

IP Differentiated Services code point marking (IETF RFC 2474 [4]) shall be supported. The mapping between traffic categories and Diffserv code points shall be configurable by O&M for based on QoS Class Identifier (QCI)/ Label Characteristics and others E-UTRAN traffic parameters. Traffic categories are implementation-specific and may be determined from the application parameters.

5.5 LTE-WLAN Aggregation

For the LWA bearer option

– the GTP-U (TS 29.281 [2]) protocol over UDP over IP shall be supported as the transport for the downlink and uplink user data streams of LWA PDUs and the uplink flow control feedback stream on the Xw interface. The GTP-U PDU may include a Xw RAN Container with flow control information as specified in TS 36.465 [3] which is carried in the GTP-U extension header. The transport bearer is identified by the GTP-U TEID (TS 29.281 [2]) and the IP address of the eNB and WT respectively. There is one UL data stream and there is one DL data stream per E-RAB at the Xw interface:

– The DL data stream is used for DL user data transmission from the eNB to the WT.

– The UL data stream is used for UL user data transmission and UL flow control feedback transmission from the WT to the eNB.

– the packet processing function in the eNB shall send downstream packets corresponding to a given E-RAB to the WT IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the DL transport bearer of that particular E-RAB. The packet processing function in the WT shall send upstream packets corresponding to a given E-RAB to the eNB IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the UL transport bearer of that particular E-RAB or the E-RAB with the lowest E-RAB ID.

– in addition, user data forwarding (from WT to eNB ) may be performed by eNB providing another GTP-U TEID to receive the DL data forwarded by the WT.

5.6 LTE WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel

For the LWIP bearer option

– the GTP-U (TS 29.281 [2]) protocol over UDP over IP shall be supported as the transport for the downlink and uplink user data streams of LWIP PDUs and the uplink flow control feedback stream on the Xw interface. The GTP-U PDU includes a Xw RAN Container with flow control information as specified in TS 36.465 [3] which is carried in the GTP-U extension header. The transport bearer is identified by the GTP-U TEID (TS 29.281 [2]) and the IP address of the eNB and LWIP-SeGW respectively. There is one UL data stream and there is one DL data stream per UE at the Xw interface:

– The DL data stream is used for DL user data transmission from the eNB to the LWIP-SeGW.

– The UL data stream is used for UL user data transmission and UL flow control feedback transmission from the LWIP-SeGW to the eNB.

– the packet processing function in the eNB shall send downstream packets corresponding to all LWIP bearers to the LWIP-SeGW IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the DL transport bearer of that particular GTP-U TEID. The packet processing function in the LWIP-SeGW shall send upstream packets corresponding to all LWIP bearers to the eNB IP address (received in XwAP) associated to the UL transport bearer of that particular GTP-U TEID.

Annex A (informative):
Change history

Change history

Date

Meeting

TDoc.

CR

Rev

Cat

Subject/Comment

New version

2015-08

RAN3#89

R3-151596

Draft skeleton TR

0.0.1

2015-09

RAN3#89-bis

R3-152213

TR number update

0.0.2

2015-11

RAN3#90

R3-152419

TR number update

0.1.0

2015-11

RAN3#90

R3-152906

Agreements from RAN3#90

0.2.0

2016-01

RAN3#AH

R3-160006

TR number update

1.1.0

2016-02

RAN3#AH

R3-160149

Agreements from RAN3#AH

1.2.0

2016-02

RAN3#91

R3-160157

TR number update

1.3.0

2016-02

RAN3#91

R3-160456

Agreements from RAN3#91

1.4.0

2016-03

71

RP-160436

MCC cleanup, presented for approval in RAN#71

2.0.0

2016-03

71

Upgraded to Rel-13 and placed under change control

13.0.0

2016-06

72

RP-161046

1

1

F

Rapporteur updates – miscellaneous corrections

13.1.0

2016-09

73

RP-161550

5

F

Correction of the LWA PDU type

13.2.0

2017-03

RAN#75

RP-170535

0009

 

B

Enabling uplink data bearers

14.0.0

2017-03

RAN#75

RP-170543

0010

1

B

Enabling LWIP support over Xw

14.0.0

2017-06

RAN#76

RP-171324

011

F

Clarification of the use of the RAN Container

14.1.0

2017-09

RP-77

RP-171982

0013

1

A

Change of the name of the GTP container

14.2.0

2018-06

SA#80

Promotion to Release 15 without technical change

15.0.0

2020-07

SA#88-e

Update to Rel-16 version (MCC)

16.0.0

2022-03

SA#95-e

Promotion to Release 17 without technical change

17.0.0