3GPP Scout / Glossary

Glossary

PCell (Primary Cell) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
PCell
Stands for
Primary Cell
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 36.300, TS 36.331, TS 38.300

In plain words

PCell means Primary Cell, according to the vocabulary entry in 3GPP TR 21.905. In carrier aggregation, TS 36.300 and TS 38.300 use the wording "This cell is referred to as the Primary Cell (PCell).". TS 36.331 also uses PCell in its definitions, in a phrase about a Timing Advance Group containing the PCell or the PSCell.

Source: 3GPP TS 36.300 V18.8.0, clause 7.5. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-i80.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 36.300 V18.8.0, clause 7.5. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-i80.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 38.300 V18.11.0, clause 7.7. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-ib0.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 36.331 V16.21.0, clause 3.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.331/36331-gl0.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.