Processing buffer status reports

1. A base station comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) receiver; and

a processor and memory system coupled to the RF receiver and comprising instructions that are executable to:

transmit, to a user equipment (UE), an uplink grant to transmit a Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU); and

receive, using the RF receiver, a One-Byte-Buffer Status Report for a Logical Channel Group with a highest priority logical channel and data available for transmission by the UE, the One-Byte-Buffer Status Report consists of a number of padding bits in the MAC PDU that (i) is greater than or equal to a size of a subheader of a Short Buffer Status Report (BSR) or greater than or equal to the size of the Short BSR and (ii) is also less than the size of the Short BSR plus the subheader of the Short BSR.

2. The base station of claim 1 , further comprising:

an RF transmitter; and

wherein the instructions are further executable to:

transmit a mapping between a first logical channel and a first value;

and

receive the MAC PDU from the UE.

3. The base station of claim 2 , wherein a first subfield of a buffer status report (BSR) includes the first value, and wherein a second subfield of the BSR is set to a second value that is associated with the first value, and wherein the included first value, the included second value, and a mapping between the first logical channel and the first value indicate that the first logical channel has data pending for transmission and that the first logical channel has the highest priority of the logical channels that have data pending for transmission by the UE.

4. The base station of claim 3 , wherein the first value of the first subfield is associated with a first logical channel or associated with the logical channel group (LCG) including the first logical channel, and wherein the second value of the second subfield is used to indicate a sum of data or a level indicative of the sum of data pending in a buffer for transmission by the UE from the first logical channel or the logical channel group associated with the first value.

5. The base station of claim 2 , wherein the reception of the MAC PDU is effective to direct the base station to allocate radio resources for the user equipment based on the first value.

6. The base station of claim 2 , wherein the instructions to transmit the mapping between the first logical channel and the first value are further executable to:

transmit a message to the UE indicating (a) a mapping between the first logical channel and a first logical channel group and (b) a mapping between the first logical channel group and the first value.

7. A method of processing a buffer status from a user equipment (UE) by a base station in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the base station, a mapping between a first logical channel and a first value;

transmitting an uplink grant to transmit a Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU);

receiving a MAC PDU from the user equipment, the MAC PDU including an X-Byte-Buffer Status Report (X-Byte-BSR), the X-Byte-BSR consists of a number of remaining bits in the MAC PDU is less than the size of a Short Buffer Status Report (BSR) Control Element (CE) plus a subheader of the BSR CE and is also greater than or equal to the subheader of the Short BSR CE or greater than or equal to the size of the Short BSR CE; and

wherein a first subfield of the X-Byte-BSR is set to the first value, a second subfield of the X-Byte-BSR is set to a second value that is associated with the first value, and wherein the first value and the second value indicate that the first logical channel has data pending for transmission and that the first logical channel has a highest priority of the logical channels that have data pending for reception from the UE.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first value is associated with the first logical channel or associated with a logical channel group (LCG) including the first logical channel.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second value indicates a sum of data or a level indicative of the sum of data pending in a buffer for transmission by the UE using the first logical channel or a logical channel group associated with the first value.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the receiving the MAC PDU comprises:

allocating radio resources for the user equipment based on the first value.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the X-Byte-BSR includes a third subfield, and wherein the third subfield of the X-Byte-BSR is set to a third value that indicates that there are one or more other logical channels that have data pending for transmission by the UE.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the transmitting the MAC PDU is effective to cause the base station to determine whether to allocate radio resources to the user equipment.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the X-Byte-BSR is the Short BSR CE.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first subfield is a Logical Channel Group (LCG) identifier (ID) in the Short BSR CE.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the second subfield is a buffer size field in the Short BSR CE.

16. The method of claim 7 , wherein the X-Byte-BSR is the subheader of a Short BSR CE or a Short Truncated BSR CE.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second subfield is a Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) field in the X-Byte-BSR.

18. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

transmitting a message to configure the user equipment with a logical channel and a priority of the logical channel.

19. The method of claim 7 , wherein if there are N padding byte(s) and a MAC subheader that is used to indicate padding contains a value that is also N byte(s), the X-Byte-BSR is included in the MAC PDU, instead of the MAC subheader that is used to indicate the padding.

20. A method of reporting a buffer status to a base station by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

receiving, by the user equipment, a mapping between a first logical channel and a first value;

receiving an uplink grant to transmit a Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU);

determining if a number of remaining bits in the MAC PDU is less than a size of a Short Buffer Status Report (BSR) Control Element (CE) plus a subheader of a BSR CE and is also greater than or equal to the size of the subheader of the Short BSR CE or greater than or equal to the size of the Short BSR CE; and

based on determining that the number of remaining bits in the MAC PDU is less than the size of the Short Buffer Status Report (BSR) Control Element (CE) plus the subheader of the BSR CE and is also greater than or equal to the subheader of the Short BSR CE or greater than or equal to the size of the Short BSR CE, including an X-Byte-BSR in the MAC PDU.