In MR-DC, the UE is configured with two MAC entities: one MAC entity for the MCG and one MAC entity for the SCG. The serving cells other than the PCell can be activated/deactivated by RRC or MAC Control Element. For activation/deactivation by MAC Control Element, the serving cells of the MCG other than the PCell can only be activated/deactivated by the MAC Control Element received on MCG, and the serving cells of the SCG other than PSCell can only be activated/ deactivated by the MAC Control Element received on SCG. The MAC entity applies the bitmap for the associated cells of either MCG or SCG. When the SCG is not deactivated, the PSCell is always activated like the PCell (i.e. deactivation timer is not applied to PSCell). With the exception of PUCCH SCell, one deactivation timer is configured per SCell by RRC. In MR-DC, semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) resources and configured grant (CG) resources can be configured on serving cells in both MCG and SCG. In MR-DC, for 4-step RA type, contention based random access (CBRA) procedure is supported on both PCell and PSCell while contention free random access (CFRA) procedure is supported on all serving cells in both MCG and SCG. For 2-step RA type, CBRA can be supported on the PCell, if the MN is a gNB (i.e. for NE-DC and NR-DC) and on the PSCell, if the SN is a gNB (i.e, for EN-DC, NGEN-DC and NR-DC) while CFRA is only supported on the PCell, if the MN is a gNB (i.e. for NE-DC and NR-DC). In (NG)EN-DC and NR-DC, when SCG is deactivated as described in clause 7.13, the TA timer associated with SCG continues running, the UE considers the TA is valid as long as TA timer is running. In case of SCG activation, the UE can be instructed by the network to perform random access towards PSCell even if the TA timer associated with PSCell is running and RLF and beam failure are not declared. Besides, the UE can be instructed by the network to perform SCG activation without performing random access, if the TA timer associated with PSCell is running and RLM and beam failure detection are configured but RLF or beam failure is not declared. In case of network-initiated SCG activation, both CBRA and CFRA on PSCell are supported. For CFRA, the dedicated RACH resources can be provided in the RRC message used to activate SCG. In MR-DC, the BSR configuration, triggering and reporting are independently performed per cell group. For split bearers, the PDCP data is considered in BSR in the cell group(s) configured by RRC. In MR-DC, separate DRX configurations are provided for MCG and SCG. A secondary DRX group can be configured in MR-DC for a cell group that includes cells in different Frequency Ranges as specified in TS 38.331. In MR-DC, PHR is independently configured per cell group. Events in one cell group can trigger power headroom reporting in both MCG and SCG. Power headroom information for one cell group is also included in a PHR transmitted in the other cell group. While the SCG is deactivated, PHR for SCG is not reported. In MR-DC, consistent LBT failure recovery procedure as described in clause 5.6.1 of TS 38.300 can be configured for both MAC entities of MCG and/or SCG when operating with shared spectrum channel access. In MR-DC, for power saving purpose, the UE can be configured with DCP to be monitored on the PCell, if the MN is a gNB (i.e. for NE-DC and NR-DC) and/or with DCP to be monitored on the PSCell, if the SN is a gNB (i.e. for EN-DC, NGEN-DC and NR-DC). In MR-DC, the UE may be configured with enhanced intra-UE overlapping resources prioritization on MN, if the MN is a gNB (i.e. for NE-DC and NR-DC) and on SN, if the SN is a gNB (i.e. for EN-DC, NGEN-DC and NR-DC).

Both RLC AM and UM can be configured for MR-DC, for all bearer types (MCG, SCG and split bearers).

In EN-DC, CA duplication (see [3]) can be applied in the MN and in the SN, but MCG bearer CA duplication can be configured only in combination with E-UTRAN PDCP and MCG bearer CA duplication can be configured only if DC duplication is not configured for any split bearer. In NGEN-DC, CA duplication can only be configured for SCG bearer. In NE-DC, CA duplication can only be configured for MCG bearer. In NR-DC, CA duplication can be configured for both MCG and SCG bearers, and can be configured together with DC duplication. In MR-DC, RoHC and EHC (as described in TS 36.323 and TS 38.323) can be configured for all the bearer types. In MR-DC with 5GC, UDC (as described in TS 38.323) can be configured for all the bearer types.

In MR-DC with 5GC, the network may host up to two SDAP protocol entities for each individual PDU session, one for MN and another one for SN (see clause 8.1). The UE is configured with one SDAP protocol entity per PDU session.

In EN-DC and NR-DC, IAB-node and IAB-donor-DU can be configured with BAP sublayer for backhaul traffic (as described in TS 38.300 and TS 38.340). In EN-DC, the BAP sublayer routes the backhaul traffic via only the NR interface. In NR-DC, the BAP sublayer can route the backhaul traffic via the two NR interfaces to the same IAB-donor.