How PDCP in LTE?
The main services provided by the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) are:
For the user plane:
- IP header compression and decompression with the Robust Header Compression (ROHC) method only.
- Ciphering
- Transfer of user data
- In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at HO in the uplink
For the control plane:
- Ciphering and Integrity Protection to secure the transmission of core network signaling
The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the user plane include:
- Header compression and decompression: ROHC only;
- Transfer of user data;
- In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at PDCP re-establishment procedure for RLC AM;
- Duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs at PDCP re-establishment procedure for RLC AM;
- Retransmission of PDCP SDUs at handover for RLC AM;
- Ciphering and deciphering;
- For example, during an FTP transfer, a lot of IP packets are sent over the air interface and the IP headers are almost always the same. They represent a significant amount of data which can be reduced thanks to a compression method.
- The PDCP header is 1 (or 2) octet.
- The Robust Header Compression (ROHC) is a standardized method used to compress IP, UDP, TCP and RTP headers.
- RFC 4995