Contention-based random access in unlicensed spectrum

A base station (BS) for wireless communication, comprising:

• a transceiver;
• a memory configured to store instructions;
• and
• one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory, the one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to:
• receive, over a physical random access channel (PRACH), data from a user equipment (UE), wherein the PRACH includes at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol;
• estimate a number of OFDM symbols of the PRACH;
• and
• decode the PRACH based at least in part on the estimated number of OFDM symbols,
• wherein the receiving the data over the PRACH comprises receiving a first type of data over a first type of PRACH resource or receiving a second type of data over a second type of PRACH resource.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code, comprising:

• code that when executed by a processor causes a base station (BS) to:
• receive, over a physical random access channel (PRACH), data from a user equipment (UE), wherein the PRACH includes at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol;
• estimate a number of OFDM symbols of the PRACH;
• and
• decode the PRACH based at least in part on the estimated number of OFDM symbols,
• wherein the receiving the data over the PRACH comprises receiving a first type of data over a first type of PRACH resource or receiving a second type of data over a second type of PRACH resource.