Section: 8.3.1 Centralized Retransmission in Intra gNB-CU Cases
Content: This mechanism allows to perform the retransmission of the PDCP PDUs that are not delivered by a gNB-DU (gNB-DU1) because the corresponding radio links toward the UE are subject to outage. When such outage occurs, the gNB-DU affected by outage informs the gNB-CU of such event. The gNB-CU can switch transmission of data traffic, as well as perform retransmission of undelivered PDCP PDUs, from the gNB-DU affected by outage to other available gNB-DUs (e.g. gNB-DU2 in Figure 8.3.1-1) with a well-functioning radio link toward the UE. The mechanism is also applicable in EN-DC and MR-DC with 5GC, refer to TS 37.340[ Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and NR; Multi-connectivity; Overall Description; Stage-2 ]  [12]. Figure 8.3.1-1: Procedure for centralized retransmission in intra gNB-CU scenarios The mechanism is shown in Figure 8.3.1-1 and targets the multi-connectivity scenario, where a UE is served by multiple data radio bearers established at least on two gNB-DUs, and it includes the following steps: 0. The UE is connected and can transmit/receive data to/from gNB-DU1 and gNB-DU2. 1. gNB-DU1 realizes that the radio link towards the UE is experiencing outage. 2. gNB-DU1 sends the "Radio Link Outage" notification message to the gNB-CU over the F1-U interface, as part of the DDDS PDU of the concerned data radio bearer. The message may include information to be used by the gNB-CU to perform retransmission of the PDCP PDUs that were not delivered by the gNB-DU1 (e.g. the highest transmitted NR PDCP Sequence Number, the highest successfully delivered NR PDCP Sequence Number and the lost NR-U Sequence Numbers). 3. gNB-CU decides to switch data traffic transmission and retransmission of PDCP PDUs that were undelivered in gNB-DU1 via gNB-DU2. gNB-CU stops sending downlink traffic to gNB-DU1. The radio leg between gNB-DU1 and the UE is not necessarily removed. 4. gNB-CU starts sending traffic (namely new PDUs and potentially retransmitted PDUs) to gNB-DU2. 5. If gNB-DU1 realizes that the radio link of the concerned data radio bearer is back in normal operation, it may send a "Radio Link Resume" notification message as part of the DDDS PDU over the F1-U interface to inform the gNB-CU that the radio link can be used again for the concerned data radio bearer. 6. gNB-CU may start sending traffic (namely new PDUs and potentially retransmitted PDUs) of the concerned data radio bearer via gNB-DU1 again.