Signalling Radio Bearers

Signalling Radio Bearers

"Signalling Radio Bearers" (SRBs) are defined as Radio Bearers (RB) that are used only for the transmission of RRC and NAS messages. More specifically, the following three SRBs are defined:

-     SRB0 is for RRC messages using the CCCH logical channel;

-     SRB1 is for RRC messages (which may include a piggybacked NAS message) as well as for NAS messages prior to the establishment of SRB2, all using DCCH logical channel;

-     SRB2 is for NAS messages, using DCCH logical channel. SRB2 has a lower-priority than SRB1 and is always configured by E-UTRAN after security activation.

In downlink piggybacking of NAS messages is used only for one dependant (i.e. with joint success/ failure) procedure: bearer establishment/ modification/ release. In uplink NAS message piggybacking is used only for transferring the initial NAS message during connection setup.

NOTE: The NAS messages transferred via SRB2 are also contained in RRC messages, which however do not include any RRC protocol control information. Once security is activated, all RRC messages on SRB1 and SRB2, including those containing NAS or non-3GPP messages, are integrity protected and ciphered by PDCP. NAS independently applies integrity protection and ciphering to the NAS messages.

Reference: 3GPP TS 36.331 V8.20.0 (2013-06)