System and method for random access

A user device adapted to transmit data in a communications system in which available resources are divided into contention resources and non-contention resources, the user device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• select a first non-contention resource from the non-contention resources in accordance with selection information including at least historical non-contention resource usage information,
• determine a contention resource from a first plurality of contention resources associated with the first non-contention resource, wherein the association between the first plurality of contention resources and the first non-contention resource is known by the user device and a network node in the communications system,
• transmit a message on the contention resource, wherein the message initiates a random access procedure to obtain access to the selected first non-contention resource, and
• transmit data on the first non-contention resource upon receiving an acknowledgement of the message, wherein the programming includes instructions to determine a first number of non-contention resources that the user device has used to transmit data during a prior time interval, determine a second number of non-contention resources that the user device is eligible to use to transmit data during an upcoming time interval in accordance with the first number of non-contention resources, and select one of the second number of non-contention resources in accordance with the
• selection information as the first non-contention resource upon detecting that the second number is greater than or equal to one, and wherein the second number is greater than one and the upcoming time interval is M*a single time to transmit interval in duration, where M is an integer value greater than 2, and wherein the instructions to select the first non-contention resource further comprise instructions to select (the second number minus 1)/M of the second number of non-contention resources in accordance with the selection information as additional non-contention resources for each of M single time to transmit intervals.

A user device adapted to transmit data in a communications system in which available resources are divided into contention resources and non-contention resources, the user device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• receive association information from a network node in the communications system, the association information indicating more than one contention resource associated with each of the non-contention resources;
• select a first non-contention resource from the non-contention resources in accordance with channel conditions of the non-contention resources and a number of non-contention resources that the user device has used during a prior time interval, a length of the prior time interval being configured by the network node;
• determine a first plurality of contention resources associated with the first non-contention resource in accordance with the received association information, the association information comprising an association between the first plurality of contention resources and the first non-contention resource;
• select a contention resource from the first plurality of contention resources;
• transmit a message on the contention resource, wherein the message initiates a random access procedure to obtain access to the selected first non-contention resource;
• and
• transmit data on the first non-contention resource upon receiving an acknowledgement of the message, wherein the first non-contention resource is selected further in accordance with an average number of non-contention resources to be allocated to the user device during an upcoming time interval, the average number of non-contention resources to be allocated to the user device during the upcoming time interval and a length of the upcoming time interval being configured by the network node, wherein the number of non-contention resources that the user device has used during the prior time interval is X, the average number of non-contention resources to be allocated to the user device during the upcoming time interval is K, and the instructions to select the first non-contention resource includes instructions to select the first non-contention resource from 2*K−X non-contention resources upon determining that 2*K−X is larger than 0, and wherein the 2*K−X non-contention resources are determined in accordance with the channel conditions of the non-contention resources during the upcoming time interval.