Aspects of the disclosure relate to a method of operating a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication with a network. In some aspects, the UE obtains a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a network. The MAC CE may be configured to indicate any one of a plurality of state transition actions for a secondary cell. The UE transitions to a secondary cell dormant state when a state transition action indicated by the MAC CE includes a transition to the secondary cell dormant state. The UE operates in the secondary cell dormant state.