Dual Connectivity in 5G

Main principles are

 The control plane is managed on one carrier MeNB

 The user plane split is managed at the PDCP level
 MAC & and RLC acknowledgement are managed on the same carrier
 A dual connectivity UE is equipped with 2 TX

In dual connectivity option 3x, the call is established on 4G and all bearers are managed
by the 4G EPC, thus End to End 5G features managing the QoS, like the slicing, will not
be available

Also, there is Open X2 interface that should be configured between the legacy 4G
supplier and the new 5G supplier

In MR-DC, from a UE perspective, three bearer types exist: Master Cell Group (MCG)
bearer ,Secondary Cell Group (SCG) bearer and split bearer

 A MCG bearer is a radio bearer that is served only by the MeNB, while a SCG is a radio
bearer served only by the gNB,

Besides MCG and SCG bearers, a third type of bearer can be established called split
bearer.

This type of bearer is directly connected from the SGW to the gNB and is characterized
by a single flow that is transmitted from the CN to the PDCP protocol layer located at
the gNB. Then, the gNB splits the traffic and forwards the packets to the MeNB RLC

User plane: UL – Power sharing

For UL in Dual Connectivity, UE needs to support 2 TX chains and Total UL power (i.e., 23

dBm for UE power class 3) is shared between LTE and NR

There is a potential issue of supporting simultaneous UL transmission on both bands

due to generation of Inter Modulation Products (IMD) falling into one of the receiving
bands within the UE and leading to sensitivity degradation

Single UL Tx would allow using full power on each carrier to extend coverage at cell
edge
3GPP defines two types of power sharing

 Dynamic power sharing

 Semi-static power sharing

Dynamic Power Sharing

 Optional UE feature (in UE capabilities)

 Power is allocated only on one layer at a time
 If LTE and NR transmissions are to be scheduled at the same time, UE will prioritize
LTE and reduce power on NR layer

Semi-static Power Sharing

 No interaction between LTE and NR schedulers

 Sum of power on LTE and on NR needs to be below the maximum UE power
 Maximum power on LTE is configurable