3GPP TS 25.460 V6.2.

0 (2005-03)
Technical Specification

3rd Generation Partnership Project;

Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network;
UTRAN Iuant interface: General aspects and principles
(Release 6)

The present document has been developed within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP TM) and may be further elaborated for the purposes of 3GPP.

The present document has not been subject to any approval process by the 3GPP Organizational Partners and shall not be implemented.
This Specification is provided for future development work within 3GPP only. The Organizational Partners accept no liability for any use of this Specification.
Specifications and reports for implementation of the 3GPP TM system should be obtained via the 3GPP Organizational Partners' Publications Offices.
Release 6 2 3GPP TS 25.460 V6.2.0 (2005-03)

Keywords
UMTS, radio, antenna

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Copyright Notification

No part may be reproduced except as authorized by written permission.

The copyright and the foregoing restriction extend to reproduction in all media.

© 2005, 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TTA, TTC).
All rights reserved.

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Release 6 3 3GPP TS 25.460 V6.2.0 (2005-03)

Contents
Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................ 4
1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
2 References ................................................................................................................................................ 5
3 Abbreviations ...........................................................................................................................................5
4 General aspects......................................................................................................................................... 5
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 5
4.2 Iuant interface general principles.......................................................................................................................... 6
4.3 Iuant interface specification objectives ................................................................................................................ 6
4.4 Iuant interface characteristics ............................................................................................................................... 6
5 Functions of the Iuant interface protocols ................................................................................................ 7
5.1 Physical layer functions ........................................................................................................................................ 7
5.2 Data link layer functions ....................................................................................................................................... 7
5.3 Application layer functions ................................................................................................................................... 8
5.3.1 Control of RET antennas ................................................................................................................................. 8
5.3.2 Application software and configuration data download................................................................................. 8
5.3.3 Alarm reporting ............................................................................................................................................... 8
5.3.4 Operator specific data storage ......................................................................................................................... 8
6 Other Iuant interface specifications.......................................................................................................... 8
6.1 UTRAN Iuant interface: Layer 1 (TS 25.461) ..................................................................................................... 8
6.2 UTRAN Iuant interface: Signalling Transport (TS 25.462) ................................................................................ 8
6.3 RETAP specification (TS 25.463) ........................................................................................................................ 9
6.4 Summary of UTRAN Iuant interface Technical Specifications .......................................................................... 9

Annex A (informative): OSI model overview ....................................................................................... 10

Annex B (informative): Change history ............................................................................................... 11

3GPP
Release 6 4 3GPP TS 25.460 V6.2.0 (2005-03)

Foreword
This Technical Specification has been produced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

The contents of the present document are subject to continuing work within the TSG and may change following formal
TSG approval. Should the TSG modify the contents of the present document, it will be re-released by the TSG with an
identifying change of release date and an increase in version number as follows:

Version x.y.z

where:

x the first digit:

1 presented to TSG for information;

2 presented to TSG for approval;

3 or greater indicates TSG approved document under change control.

y the second digit is incremented for all changes of substance, i.e. technical enhancements, corrections,
updates, etc.

z the third digit is incremented when editorial only changes have been incorporated in the document.

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1 Scope
The present document is an introduction to the 3GPP TS 25.46x series of UMTS Technical Specifications that define
the Iuant Interface. The logical Iuant interface is a Node B internal interface between the implementation specific O&M
function and the RET antenna control unit function of the Node B.

2 References
The following documents contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present
document.

 References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or
non-specific.

 For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.

 For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including
a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same
Release as the present document.

[1] 3GPP TS 25.401: "UTRAN Overall Description".

[2] 3GPP TS 25.461: "UTRAN Iuant Interface: Layer 1".

[3] 3GPP TS 25.462: "UTRAN Iuant Interface: Signalling Transport".

[4] 3GPP TS 25.463: "UTRAN Iuant Interface: Remote Electrical Tilting (RET) Antennas
Application Part (RETAP) Signalling".

[5] ISO/IEC 13239 (2nd Edition, March 2000): "Information Technology – Telecommunications and
information exchange between systems – High-level data link control (HDLC) procedures".

[6] 3GPP TS 25.442: "UTRAN implementation-specific O&M transport".

3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:

HDLC High-Level Data Link Control

IP Internet Protocol
O&M Operations & Maintenance
OSI Open Systems Interconnection
RET Remote Electrical Tilting
RETAP Remote Electrical Tilting Application Part
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

4 General aspects

4.1 Introduction
The Iuant interface for the control of RET antennas is a logical part of the Node B as shown in figure 9 of [1].
Therefore, no new UTRAN element for the RET antenna and no new UTRAN element manager is needed. The existing
Implementation Specific O&M transport is used for the connection between the RET antenna control unit and the Node
B element manager.

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The Node B internal interface Iuant between the Implementation Specific O&M function and the RET antenna control
unit function is specified in detail in the specifications for layer 1, signalling transport and RET application part [2,3,4].

4.2 Iuant interface general principles

For the control of RET antennas a standard data interface between the Node B Implementation Specific O&M function
and the Node B RET antenna control function according to [1] is defined by means of which functional parameters of
the device can be remotely controlled. The Iuant interface for the RET antenna control is based on a three-layer protocol
model. The three-layer model is a compact form of the OSI seven-layer reference model and includes only layers 1, 2
and 7:

- The Physical Layer (Layer 1) defines the signalling levels and basic data characteristics including the data rates;

- The Data Link Layer (Layer 2) for the Signalling Transport uses a specific class of the HDLC standard as
defined in [5];

- The Application Layer (Layer 7) defines the data payload format and the required command set. This layer is
called the "RET Application Part" (RETAP).

This compact model for the control interface provides an efficient protocol stack suitable for implementation on a single
embedded micro-controller.

4.3 Iuant interface specification objectives

The Iuant interface specifications shall facilitate the following:

- Controlling the tilting of RET antennas remotely from the O&M Network and locally from the Node B;

- Interfacing a mix of RET antennas and Node Bs from different vendors;

- Providing RET functionality in the UTRAN accompanied by an appropriate set of signalling commands and
control parameters

- Support of error and alarm handling.

4.4 Iuant interface characteristics

The Iuant interface has a protocol structure as shown below in figure 4.4.1.

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Implementation specific
O&M function

RETAP RETAP

See Reference [6] HDLC HDLC

PHY PHY

Node B Iuant

Figure 4.4.1: Protocol structure for Iuant interface

As the Iuant and the Implementation Specific O&M are different interfaces with e.g. different addressing schemes a
mediation function is needed. This mediation function uses on one side a protocol that uses the implementation specific
O&M bearer (e.g. IP) and on the other side the Iuant protocol.

5 Functions of the Iuant interface protocols

5.1 Physical layer functions

The physical layer provides a multi drop broadcast link between the primary device (Node B) and all secondary devices
(RET antennas). Any message transmitted will be received by all other devices. If two devices transmit at the same
time, their messages will be garbled.

The connection requires a half duplex communication, which requires an appropriate scheme for the timing and access
control of the connection.

5.2 Data link layer functions

The data link layer provides:

- A data packet communication format;

- An addressing scheme;

- A master/slave relationship whereby the primary device controls the half duplex timing;

- A message checksum scheme to protect from transmission errors;

- A message sequence numbering scheme which protects layer 7 from

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- Duplicated messages;

- Deleted messages;

- Receiving messages in the wrong order.

- A flow control mechanism protecting each device from being overrun by messages.

These functions provide layer 7 with a safe full-duplex connection between the primary device and any secondary
device. This full duplex connection allows both the primary and secondary device to transmit layer 7 messages to the
opposite device of the connection, whenever they need to. Actual delivery time on layer 2 will depend on the layer 2
polling frequency, which is chosen by the primary device.

5.3 Application layer functions

The list of functions on the Iuant interface is the following:

- Control of RET antennas;

- Application software and configuration data download;

- Alarm Reporting;

- Operator specific data storage.

5.3.1 Control of RET antennas

A RET device provides means to adjust the electrical tilt of one or multiple antennas. The set of procedures to control
RET antennas provides means to control the electrical tilt of one or more RET antennas remotely.

5.3.2 Application software and configuration data download

The interface provides means for downloading new application software and configuration data to a secondary device.

The support of application software download to a secondary device is optional. If a secondary device supports
application software download, it shall reset itself and start running the new application software automatically after the
completed download. Further details on the software download procedure (e.g. the different states of the secondary
device and the supported elementary procedures in these states) are described in subclause 6.1 of [4].

5.3.3 Alarm reporting

The secondary device reports every change in error status after subscription for alarm reporting by transmitting alarm
messages to the primary device. Alarm information can also be interrogated in the application layer.

5.3.4 Operator specific data storage

The secondary device provides means for storage of operator specific data, e.g. inventory information.

6 Other Iuant interface specifications

6.1 UTRAN Iuant interface: Layer 1 (TS 25.461)

TS 25.461 [2] specifies the standards allowed for implementation of Layer 1 (physical layer) on the Iuant interface.

6.2 UTRAN Iuant interface: Signalling Transport (TS 25.462)

TS 25.462 [3] specifies the signalling transport related to RETAP signalling to be used across the Iuant interface.

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6.3 RETAP specification (TS 25.463)

TS 25.463 [4] specifies the standards for RETAP specification to be used over the Iuant interface.

6.4 Summary of UTRAN Iuant interface Technical

Specifications
The relationship between the technical specifications that define the UTRAN Iuant interface is shown in figure 6.4.1.

Radio Network RETAP

Layer
TS 25.463

Transport RETAP Transport

Layer
TS 25.462

Physical
Layer TS 25.461

Figure 6.4.1: Iuant Interface Technical Specifications

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Annex A (informative):
OSI model overview
7 Application 7 Application

2 Data Link 2 Data Link

1 Physical 1 Physical

Actual message path

Apparent message path

Figure A.1: Relevant OSI model layers

Figure A.1 shows the relevant OSI model layers and the communication paths between the primary and secondary
device.

The two important aspects of the OSI model are:

- It defines a layered structure for the communication software;

- It provides each layer with an apparent direct link to the same layer at the other device.

However, in real life, the only actual message path between the two devices is through the physical connection between
the two layer 1 entities.

The layer 2 entities appear to communicate directly. In actual fact, a message passed from the first device to the second
device takes the following path:

- Layer 2 at the first device passes the message down to Layer 1;

- Layer 1 transmits the message across the physical connection (for instance a wire) to layer 1 at the second
device;

- Layer 1 at the second device passes the message up to Layer 2 at the second device.

Likewise, layer 7 entities appear to communicate directly. In actual fact, a message passed from the first device to the
second device takes the following path:

- Layer 7 at the first device passes the message down to Layer 2;

- Layer 2 at the first device passes the message down to Layer 1;

- Layer 1 transmits the message across the physical connection (for instance a wire) to layer 1 at the second
device;

- Layer 1 at the second device passes the message up to Layer 2 at the second device;

- Layer 2 at the second device passes the message up to Layer 7 at the second device.

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Annex B (informative):
Change history

Change history
Date TSG # TSG Doc. CR Rev Subject/Comment Old New
September 25 RP-040304 presentation to TSG-RAN for information _ 1.0.0
2004
September 25 RP-040304 approved at TSG-RAN#25 and placed under change control 1.0.0 6.0.0
2004
12/2004 26 RP-040444 1 2 Minor Corrections and editorial changes to 25.460 according to 6.0.0 6.1.0
RAN3#44
12/2004 26 RP-040444 2 2 Update of Software Download description 6.0.0 6.1.0
03/2005 27 RP-050061 3 Editorial Corrections to 25.460 after RAN3#45 6.10 6.2.0

3GPP