201O International Conforence on Educational and Information Technology (ICEIT 2010)

Design and Application of the ASN.l Module in the LTE-Uu

Interface Protocol Stack

Xiaolin Li Xiaoqiang Wen Xuesong Li

Institute of the applications of Institute of the applications of Institute of the applications of
advanced telecommunications advanced telecommunications advanced telecommunications
technology, technology, technology,
The Chongqing University of Posts The Chongqing University of Posts The Chongqing University of Posts
and Telecommunications and Telecommunications and Telecommunications
Chongqing Information Technology Chongqing, P. R. China Chongqing Information Technology
Designing CO., LTD yjs_ wenxiaoqiang@cqcyit.com Designing CO., LTD
Chongqing, P. R. China Chongqing, P. R. China
lixiaolin@cqcyit.com lixuesong_5206@hotmail.com

Abstract-In order to initiatively imitate and improve network used in Basic unaligned PER, that is compact and fast
performance, by research and analysis of signaling message encoding, which can achieve higher communication
which is transmitted in the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack, A efficiency. Be noted that, the encoding of the ASN.l data
practical project on the design and application of the ASN.l types must be done strictly in accordance with X.691
encoder/decoder in the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack is put protocol in the specific implementation. Even if it is a bit of
forward based on the theory of the ASN.l and its UPER coding
error, the LTE system may not work correctly [31.
rule. The design contains the data structure of the information
needed in the complete coding and decoding, and extracts
corresponding parameters from the data structure to complete Literature[4-7] discussed the approach about the
the analysis by calling a separate codec library. The proposed development through the automated ASN.l
examination of the application of the ASN.l encoding and compiler and new runtime, etc, but these are mainly for the
decoding modules in protocol conformance testing TD-SCDMA and other protocol standards, and on the one
demonstrates that the function of the ASN.l encoder/decoder
hand , Some features of LTE-Uu interface protocol stack has
modules meets the 3GPP protocol actual testing requirements.
made great changes in comparison with the TD-SCDMA. On
the other hand, signaling messages with the LTE protocol
Keywords-component; LTE-Uu interface protocol stack;
version change is still constantly changing. Therefore, this
ASN.l encoder/decoder; Unaligned Packed encoding rules
paper get the advantages of their ASN.l module in [4-7], on
the encoding and decoding technology of the signaling

I. INTRODUCTION
messages in LTE-Uu interface protocol stack ,which
described in the ASN.1 language , and based on this test
With the development of mobile communication application process simulation do exploratory research.
technology, and the integrated of mobile communications
and broadband wireless access technology, 3GPP carried out
long term evolution of UTRA Technology (Long Term II. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LTE-UU INTERFACE
Evolution, LTE). Compared to the previous TD-SCDMA 3G PROTOCOL STACK
mobile communication system, LTE can provide support for
various data transmission and the mobile communications In the 3GPP protocol, LTE-Uu interface protocol stack is
systems higher data transmission rate than ever before, divided into the following protocol layers from the view of
which will inevitably increase the letter between the UE and functions and tasks: physical layer (Ll), data link layer (L2)
eNodeB order interaction. 3GPP introduce the UPER and radio resource control layer (L3). Data link layer (L2)
encoding rules of ASN.l language to describe signaling consists of medium access control (medium access control,
messages in the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack [11. ASN.1 MAC) layer, Radio Link Control (radio link control, RLC)
data types can be divided into simple and complicate types. layer, packet data convergence protocol (packet date
Simple type is the type defined indecomposable basic data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer [81.
types, which include NULL, BOOL, Integer, Bit String,
Octet String, Object Identifier, etc; ASN.l permits users to
use simple types to construct complicate types. Complicate
types are Sequence, Choice, Set, Sequence of, Set of, etc [21.
Signaling messages of LTE-Uu interface protocol stack are

978-1-4244-8035-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE V3-149

 2010 International Conference on Educational and Information Technology (ICEIT 2010)
Air Interface
User Equipment(UE) eNodeB
LTE-Uu
Figure I. The frame of the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack
ASN_l encoding and decoding module is the most critical
part in the LTE RRC layer, and the core block information of
the restructuring process of LTE-Uu interface protocol stack
from Figure 1 _ At the sending end, L3 RRC layer messages
are sent through the ASN.l encoding and decoding module
to form the RRC PDU module. And then were treated with
the L2 PDCP layer, RLC layer and MAC layer processing,
by the L1 physical layer send out; at the receiving end, just
the reverse process of the sending end, by L1 physical layer,
then through the L2 MAC, RLC and PDCP layer processing,
then sent to the ASN.l encoding and decoding module of the
L3 RRC layer decoding the signaling information, so as to
complete signaling message parsing.
III. THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ASN.1
MODULE
At present, domestic and foreign manufacturers of
communications software protocol company took each of the
LTE protocol stack interface seriously,
Trillium has introduced software analysis
addition to signaling messages, and some part agree with
simulation capabilities. But they are mainly for the LTE
FDD standard, and ASN.l encoding and decoding software
in the form of these is different, but in terms of its effect
achieved is entirely consistent.
As Figure 2 shown, module definition of the software
design, the implementation of the program code and the
actual development of some of the difficulties encountered in
the solution are presented in the design of the ASN.l
encoding and decoding module of the LTE-Uu interface
protocol stack. In order to realize of ASN.1 encoding and
decoding module, then:
(1 ) Make message (rrc.asn), which is described using
ASN.1 language in the protocol stack, compile into a C
language description of the source file (rrc.h);
(2) Generated the corresponding C data structures codec
functions (rrc.c) from message (rrc.asn), which is described
using ASN.1 language in the protocol stack.
Compilation is to compile (rrc.asn), which is described in
the ASN.l language, to (rrc.h) files, and its (rrc.h) the
corresponding (rrc.c) file. More to say: each of the ASN.l
data types are mapped to the data structure
corresponding encoding and decoding function in C
language. (rrc.h) files are generated for the statement after
the C compiler data types and codec functions, (rrc.c) files
are used to implement the encoding and decoding functions.
Then the encoding and decoding functions call encoding and
decoding ASN.1 basic function library (Basic_asn.h,
Basic_asn.c) in figure 2 to achieve encoding and decoding
functions. Finally get the executable files to LTE-Uu
interface protocol stack, thus completing the conversion from
the ASN.1 description to the binary bit stream, making its
information transmission in LTE system network.
The messages according to the
ASN.1 language ASN.1 encode/decode
c
omp t
_
SN 1
l- --- ---,
Application of '.h','.c'
in the LTE-Uu Application in the LTE-Uu
interiace Protocol stack intenace Protocol stack
C compiler
Figure 2. The processes of the ASN.I encoding and decoding
Build process in Figure 2 is a comparatively complicated,
because if the ASN.1 message of TD-SCDMA air interface
is hand-translated into C files ,there will be hundreds of
thousands of lines, which will be a huge task. But now the
ASN.1 message of LTE RRC is a relatively simplified
compared to the TD-SCDMA. Through the design of
specific data structure in this paper, and map the ASN.1
message of the LTE RRC to C, remove the redundant code
OSS Nokalva, and take other optimization measures, the entire LTE RRC
functions in messages C file compression to 1 2M about.
After the complete of LTE RRC messages compiled into
C code file, it still needs codec library preparation. The
codec library is the core part of ASN.l module, which
includes codec function corresponding to the all ASN.l data
types, and when writing it must be strictly in accordance
with encoding rules UPER in the X.691 protocol. After the
complete of these complicates and detailed work, then it
need rigorous series of tests to determine their validity. The
last complete source code of ASN.l encoding and decoding
library is about 6000 lines around.
Figure 3 shows the block diagram of ASN.1 encoding
and decoding. Encoding and decoding as a pair of reversible
parts exist in ASN.1 encoding and decoding module. At
actual run-time, first ASN.1 encoding and decoding module
by RRC cache module receive the data sent from the lower
module to be encoded/decoded, then call the relevant codec
function in the encoding and decoding module. The results
are sent through the RRC cache module after complete
encoding/decoding, then RRC perform the appropriate action.
and its
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 2010 International Conference on Educational and Information Technology (ICEIT 2010)
Figure 3. The ASN.l encoding and decoding block diagram in the LTE
Uu interface protocol stack
IV. THE TESTING AND ApPLICAnON OF THE ASN.l
MODULE
After the design of the ASN.l encoding and decoding
module it must be tested to determine its validity,
interop rability and reliability. Otherwise, if there is
something wrong with the ASN.1 encoding and decoding
module, the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack module can not
function properly. Because ASN.l messages of LTE RRC
contain a lot of PDU, and a different PDU also contains
many of the nested complicate structure. Therefore, use the
method of structural testing for ASN.l encoding and
decoding modules testing, and watch the module in the
application of compliance testing to further verify
reliability of ASN.1 encoding and decoding module.
A. The Test of the ASN.l Module
Structural testing, also known as " White-box Testing "
or unit test, which is based on the internal structure of
software testing, which aims to check the correctness of the
program code through the implementation of each statement
by traversing all branches of the program. A layered
approach in steps is taken in the implementation of the test:
first on the simple encoding / decoding functions type test,
and then on the complicate encoding and decoding functions
type test. By calling the encoding / decoding function
corresponding to the various data types of ASN.1 analyze the
data whether consistent after comparison test. The test
should conduct as many other special considerations on the
limit of length and expand for each data type according to
the X.691 .
The result of Encoding
Figure 4. Structural Testing Flowchart
The test of complicate type is to test a sub-system, which
may consist of some simple type modules. To ensure test
accuracy and reliability, the test of complicate types took two
methods as follows: one of the methods is the assignment for
DL-DCCH-Message message, which
RRCConnectionSetup in the interface message, by hand.
First called ASN.1 encoding module to encode
RRCConnectionSetup message, then called ASN.1 decoding
module for the results of encoding to decode. The reason for
choosing the DL-CCCH-Message message is that this type
of message contains almost all the ASN.1 data type, and
contains more complicate structures, with strong versatility.
After a number of random assignments according to the
X.691 , the tests revealed that the decoded results and the
beginning of the assignment are completely consistent.
Another approach is a combination of OSS Nokalva's
OSS ASN.1 OUI software on the DL-CCCH-Message
message assignment, as shown in Figure 4, generated by the
software coding rules compliance UPER bit stream. First call
ASN.l decoding module to decode, then call ASN.l
encoding module to encode the results of decoding. Finally,
compare the input bit stream and the decoding bit stream,
look at the two bit streams whether they are the same.
Because some information encoded bit stream relatively
large, thus improving the measures is to output to file and
use UltraCompare Professional tool for comparison after
decode the bit stream.
After many times of random, repeated structure testing,
each PDU input bit stream and pre-encoded bit flow is still
the
the same, indicating that ASN.l encoding and decoding
module has passed the structural testing. Of course, because
in the actual communication process, the value of the
parameter is very difficult to predict, and structural testing is
not enough, it must be together with the specific applications
of the ASN.1 encoding and decoding modules.
B. The Application of the ASN.l Encoding and Decoding
Module
For the development and test of LTE protocol stack, what
is more concerned is whether the development meets the
criteria, whether an agreement with other standards-based
products with interoperability issues. The protocol
conformance test can detect whether the physical realization
of the agreement is consistent with the protocol specificatin,
.
which is the basic premise of an agreement between entItles
to ensure interoperability and performance. And in the test
system and tested system entities by sending, recei,:ing
signaling data to complete the protocol conformance testmg.
Therefore, in order to enable both sides to understand the
communication data transmitted ASN.l Encoder !Decoder is
particularly important.
TABLEL THE TEST CASES OF RRC CONNECTION ESTABLISHMENT
Test set: RRC connection establishment(RRC)
Test Reference: 3GPP TS 36.331
Test Pattern: Black Box Testing
Test case Name Purpose of test case
Whether UE can initiate the
RRC_CON connection successfully establish a
wireless connection link to eNodeB
According to the process shown in Figure 5, the design of
a test case (see Table 1) in Telelogic TAU TTCN Suite
contain environment, this environment supports both TTCN and
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 2010 International Conference on Educational and Information Technology (ICEIT 2010)

ASN.l languages. According to the RRC connection message parsing, and to respond to an
establishment procedure in 3GPP TS 36.331 (RRC) protocol , RRCConnectionSetupComplete, after the test system
using TTCN and ASN.l languages in Telelogic TAU 4.0 of receives the message parsing, come to judgments in Figure 6.
TTCN Suite platform constructed test cases, test set, and By looking at the final verdict, the basic establish
then detach the tool platform, complete with the Windows communication link process agreement to the actual LTE in
system integration [91. Figure 6 is the same. From this, ASN.l encoding and
decoding modules to accurately resolve the received data,
I UE I I eNodeB I and can accurately describe the bit stream of information into
Make the form. Therefore, the program is effective and feasible.
request RRCConnectionRequest
Make
_----RR:C:::C:on:n: ectionSetup'----- Configure V. CONCLUSIONS

Make L
ASN.l encoding and decoding module not only has an
response l RRCConnectionSetupComplete

-! Make
important position in the LTE-Uu interface protocol stack,

--,.. Confirm
____
__

but also is a basis that determine whether LTE system to

__ __
_

achieve interoperability with other module. Through

Figure 5. The connection establishment process in LTE basic protocol
communication
Integration with the Windows system to simulate the
specific use VC6.0 a simple protocol entity measured entity
lTV to UE, it sends an RRCConnectionRequest and wait for
the eNodeB return the corresponding response message
RRCConnectionSetup, UE receives this message and sends a
successful response message RRCConnectionSetupComplete
after configuration accordingly. Test System simulates the
Base Station (eNodeB), through the implementation of test
cases, to send or wait to receive data and compare test results
obtained. LTE protocol conformance testing during basic
agreement on the process of communication simulation,
ASN.l decoding module will extract the data flow packet
which contain the RRC message, call the decode function to
decode. If properly decoded, and then analyze whether the
message flow 3GPP standards process, validate
reliability of ASN.l encoding and decoding module from
another angle.
Figure 6. Integrators operating results after Windows systems
When the IP communication port and other of test system
and tested systems is configured correctly, run the test cases;
the RRC connection establishment process flow test as
shown in Figure 5. The encoded request
RRCConnectionRequest sent to the test system, the test
systems receive and resolve to the correct request message,
then will return a corresponding response
RRCConnectionSetup, the tested system after receiving the
structural testing and the application of conformance testing,
protocol description and implementation methods and the
communication protocol conformance tests in this paper
associated with the ASN.l encoding and decoding module
are effective and feasible. For many ASN.l applications,
these methods have certain versatility.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
from "The next generation broadband wireless mobile
communications network," National Science and Technology
of major projects by the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology of the People's Republic of China
(No.2009ZX03002-009).
REFERENCES
[I] 3GPP. TS 36.331 v.9.2.0 3rd Generation Partnership Project;
the
Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved
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Control (RRC) protocol specification. Http://www.3gpp.com. 2010
[2] ITU-T Recommendation X.680(2002), abstract syntax notation
(ASN.I) - specification of basic notation.
[3] ITU-T Recommendation X.691(2002), Information technology -
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(PER) .
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