Experience: Rethinking RRC State Machine Optimization in Light of Recent Advancements

Broadband mobile networks utilize a radio resource control (RRC) state machine to allocate scarce radio resources. Current implementations introduce high latencies and crosslayer degradation. Recently, the RRC enhancements, continuous packet connectivity (CPC) and the enhanced forward access channel (Enhanced FACH), have emerged in UMTS. We study the availability and performance of these enhancements on a network serving a market with a population in the millions. Our experience in the wild shows these enhancements offer significant reductions in latency, mobile device energy consumption, and improved end user experience. We develop new over-the-air measurements that resolve existing limitations in measuring RRC parameters. We find CPC provides significant benefits with minimal resource costs, prompting us to rethink past optimization strategies. We examine the cross-layer performance of CPC and Enhanced FACH, concluding that CPC provides reductions in mobile device energy consum...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: MOBICOM
• Authors: Theodore Stoner, Xuetao Wei, Joseph Knight, Lei Guo 0005
• Keywords: Communications, MOBICOM 2015