5G Radio Resource Control

Devices in 5G network could be in 3 states:

Idle when UE (User Equipment) is not registered within the network,
Connected when UE is registered and active,
Connected and Inactive when UE preserves connection but does not exchange data with the core network.

It’s worth noticing that the core network won’t know if the device is in active or inactive state. The switching between them is completely managed by UE and Radio Access network. This is also applicable if the UE becomes active in a different cell than previously. In such a case target cell base station retrieves connection information from previously used.

As though, Idle state is used only after power-on or after a connection failure. Registering to a network requires 7 messages between Base Station and UE while moving from inactive to active takes only 3 so it is much faster. Consequently, it results in lower latency of data transfer and enables power savings, especially for sensors and IoT devices.

Do share your views about 5G Radio Resource Control in comments.