this channel. It is in use when there is no dedicated connection between the UE and the network. It is a bidirectional channel, i.e. it exists both in the uplink and downlink directions. Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) Dedicated resources were allocated to a UE. These resources require radio link management, and the control information is transmitted both uplink and downlink on DCCHs. Traffic Channels (TCH) Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) User data has to be transferred between the UE and the network. Therefore dedicated resources can be allocated to the UE for the uplink and downlink user data transmission. Common Traffic Channel (CTCH) Dedicated user data can be transmitted point-to-multipoint to a group of UEs. Common Packet Channel (CPCH) Similar to the RACH, it is a contention based uplink channel. In contrast to the RACH, it can be used to transmit larger amounts of (bursty) traffic. Transport Channels (TrCH) The transport channels determine how the content is organised to be transmitted. The MAC layer uses the transport channels as service for the lower physical layer. The MAC layer is responsible for organ- ising the logical channel data on transport channels. This process is called mapping. The MAC layer determines the used transport format, the used cyclic redundancy check (CRC) length, channel coding (convolutional/turbo, coding rate), etc. User Dedicated Channel (DCH), common (FACH/RACH) The MAC layer uses the transport service of the lower layer, the physical layer. The MAC layer is responsible for organising the logical channel data on transport channels. This process is called mapping. In this context, the MAC layer is also responsible for determining the used transport format. The transport of logical channel data takes place between the UE and the RNC. Dedicated Transport Channels Dedicated Channel (DCH) Dedicated resources can be allocated both uplink and downlink to a UE. Dedicated resources are exclu- sively in use for the subscriber. Parameter Planning Physical Channels (PhyCH) The physical