An aerobic granular sequencing batch reactor (SBR) on an aerobic/oxic/anoxic (AOA) mode was operated for 50 days with acetate sodium as the sole carbon source for simultaneous carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Excellent removal efficiencies for chemical oxygen demand (COD) (94.46 +/- 3.59%), nitrogen (96.56 +/- 3.44% for ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) and 93.88 +/- 6.78% for total inorganic nitrogen (TIN)) and phosphorus (97.71 +/- 3.63%) were obtained over operation. Mechanisms for simultaneous nutrients removal were explored and the results indicated that simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal (SNDPR) under aerobic conditions was mainly responsible for most of nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Identification and quantification of the granular AOA SBR revealed that higher rates of nutrients removal and more potentials were to be exploited by optimizing the operating conditions including time durations for AOA mode and the feeding compositions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.