UPLINK MOBILE DEVICE RANDOM ACCESS DATA CHANNEL
Devices and methods are provided for managing random access data channels in a wirelessly-enabled communications environment. An uplink (UL) random access (RA) channel is implemented to send data to an access point (AP) without requiring a UL allocation grant message to be sent on the downlink (DL) for UL timing adjustments. A mobile station (MS) sends a chosen sequence to the AP to indicate that a RA data transmission is being requested. The location and number of radio resources that are used for the UL RA data transmission are determined by the choice of a RA sequence initially sent by the MS. If UL timing has not been established, the AP is able to determine the timing of the UL RA data transmissions by deriving the offset of the initial RA request sequence transmission from the MS.
1 . A mobile station for transmitting data over a random access (RA) data channel of a plurality of RA data channels, each RA data channel comprising a RA sequence associated with a corresponding RA sequence identifier and a RA resource pattern (RP) comprising a set of uplink (UL) Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) transmission opportunities corresponding to a set of data transmission resources, each data transmission resource comprising a set of radio channel resources, the mobile station comprising:
a selection module configured to select a RA data channel from the plurality of RA data channels;
a transmission module configured to transmit the RA sequence associated with the selected RA data channel to an access point (AP);
a data transmission module configured to use data transmission resources to transmit data to the AP during corresponding HARQ transmission opportunities of the RP associated with the selected RA data channel; and
a receive module configured to receive a positive or negative acknowledgement transmission from the AP.
2 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive an indication that a number of RA data channels is increased or decreased by the AP according to traffic demand.
3 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive a communication that a number of data transmission resources allocated to a first RP of the plurality of RPs is greater than a number of data transmission resources allocated to a second RP of the plurality of RPs.
4 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the data transmission resources from a first set of data transmission resources associated with a first RP of the plurality of RPs is included in a second set of data transmission resources associated with a second RP of the plurality of RPs.
5 . The mobile station of claim 4 , wherein the number of RPs associated with an individual data transmission resource of the set of data transmission resources for a HARQ transmission opportunity varies for each HARQ transmission opportunity in the set of HARQ transmission opportunities.
6 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the set of radio channel resources used for the mobile station data transmissions comprise a restricted subset of the plurality of radio channel resources available on the radio channel.
7 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to not continue to use the data transmission resources allocated for subsequent HARQ transmission opportunities in the RP when the data transmission sent in a HARQ transmission opportunity of an RP is successfully decoded and positively acknowledged by the AP.
8 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the data transmission in at least the first HARQ transmission opportunity includes an MS identifier that is encoded or modulated separately from the data transmission.
9 . The mobile station of claim 8 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP a response to a data transmission sent during a HARQ transmission opportunity via an acknowledgement message, the acknowledgment message comprising one or more MS identifiers including at least the MS identifier associated with the data transmission.
10 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the data transmission in the HARQ transmission opportunity includes an MS identifier that is encoded and modulated with the data transmission.
11 . The mobile station of claim 10 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP a response to a data transmission sent during a HARQ transmission opportunity via an acknowledgement message, the acknowledgement message comprising one or more MS identifiers including at least the MS identifier associated with the data transmission.
12 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP an indicator that one or more RA sequences of the plurality of RA sequences has been correctly received by the AP, wherein the indicator comprises at least one of the set of:
a bit in an element of a control message associated with one or more of the RA sequences; and
a signal transmitted using a radio resource associated with one or more of the RA sequences.
13 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP an acknowledgement message indicating that one or more RA sequences from the plurality of RA sequences has been correctly received by the AP, wherein the acknowledgement message comprises a set of one or more RA sequence identifiers.
14 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to not receive a positive acknowledgement message in response to sending an RA sequence.
15 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP an acknowledgment message associated with an RP sent during a HARQ transmission opportunity via an indicator, the indicator comprising at least one of the set of:
a bit in an element of a control message associated with at least the RP; and
a signal transmitted using a radio resource associated with at least the RP.
16 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP an acknowledgement message associated with an RP sent during one HARQ transmission opportunity via an indicator, the indicator comprising a set of RA sequence identifiers including at least the RA sequence identifier associated with the RP.
17 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein the mobile station is configured to receive from the AP a confirmation of the reception of an RA sequence and the allocation of data transmission resources associated with the corresponding RP via an UL timing advance instruction.
18 . The mobile station of claim 1 , wherein an individual data transmission resource is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) UL data transmission resource, the OFDMA UL data transmission resource comprising one or more OFDM sub-carriers, an extended guard band, an extended cyclic prefix, a reduced number of symbols, and an extended guard time.