Techniques to facilitate dual connectivity

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• establishing, at a small cell evolved Node B (eNB) capable of operating in compliance with one or more 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards including LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), a backhaul link with a macro cell eNB via an X2 interface, the backhaul link established for the small cell eNB to serve as a secondary cell for one or more user equipment (UEs) while the macro cell eNB serves as a primary cell for the one or more UEs;
• splitting protocol stack processing between the small cell eNB and the macro cell eNB for radio bearers associated with a connection between an UE and an evolved packet core (EPC) such that the small cell eNB performs protocol stack processing on a portion of protocol stack layers excluding a protocol data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer;
• and
• receiving control information from the macro cell eNB through the backhaul link via the X2 interface to facilitate the protocol stack processing on the portion of protocol stack layers for a first portion of the radio bearers, the control information including a number of PDCP service data units (SDUs) not processed before a re-establishment procedure implemented at the macro cell eNB during a given transmission time interval (TTI).

At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a system for a macro cell evolved node B (eNB) capable of operating in compliance with one or more or more 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards including LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) causes the system to:

• establish a backhaul link with a small cell eNB via an X2 interface, the backhaul link established for the small cell eNB to serve as a secondary cell for one or more user equipment (UEs) while the macro cell eNB serves as a primary cell for the one or more UEs;
• split protocol stack processing between the macro cell eNB and the small cell eNB for radio bearers associated with a connection between an UE and an evolved packet core (EPC) such that the macro cell eNB performs protocol stack processing on all protocol stack layers for a first portion of the radio bearers and performs protocol stack processing on a portion of protocol stack layers for a second portion of the radio bearers, the portion of protocol stack layers including a protocol data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer;
• and
• forward control information to the small cell eNB through the backhaul link via the X2 interface to facilitate the small cell eNB performing protocol stack processing on the portion of protocol stack layers for the second portion of radio bearers, the control information including a number of PDCP service data units (SDUs) not processed before a re-establishment procedure implemented during a given transmission time interval (TTI).