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Glossary

RRC (Radio Resource Control) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

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

At a glance

Term
RRC
Stands for
Radio Resource Control
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 25.301, TS 43.051, TS 44.118

In plain words

RRC means Radio Resource Control, as defined in 3GPP TR 21.905. In TS 25.301, the RRC layer handles radio resource assignment for connections, including control and user plane needs: "The RRC layer handles the assignment of radio resources (e.g. codes) needed for the RRC connection including needs from both the control and user plane." TS 43.051 says RRC can establish, reconfigure and release user plane Radio Bearers on request from higher layers, and TS 44.118 specifies the RRC protocol.

Source: 3GPP TS 25.301 V19.0.0, clause 5.4.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/25_series/25.301/25301-j00.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 25.301 V19.0.0, clause 5.4.2. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/25_series/25.301/25301-j00.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 43.051 V17.0.0, clause 6.3.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/43_series/43.051/43051-h00.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 44.118 V16.0.0, clause 1.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/44_series/44.118/44118-g00.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.