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Glossary

PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
PDCCH
Stands for
Physical Downlink Control Channel
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 36.300, TS 38.211, TS 38.300

In plain words

PDCCH means Physical Downlink Control Channel, the term listed in 3GPP TR 21.905. TS 38.300 says PDCCH "can be used to schedule DL transmissions on PDSCH and UL transmissions on PUSCH", with Downlink Control Information carried on it. TS 36.300 describes where its downlink control signalling is located, while TS 38.211 has a section on PDCCH.

Source: 3GPP TS 38.300 V15.23.0, clause 5.2.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-fn0.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 38.300 V15.23.0, clause 5.2.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-fn0.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 38.211 V19.5.0, clause 7.3.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.211/38211-j50.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 36.300 V19.2.0, clause 5.1.3. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-j20.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.