Handling scheduling request failure in a network

A base station, comprising:

• a communication unit comprising communication circuitry configured to receive a scheduling request (SR) from a user equipment (UE) seeking an uplink (UL) grant;
• a storage unit comprising a memory storing a Scheduling Request (SR) max retransmission UE pool, wherein the SR max retransmission UE pool comprises a list of plurality of UEs, which experienced SR max retransmission;
• and
• a controller coupled to the communication unit and the storage unit, wherein the controller is configured to:
• access the SR max retransmission UE pool;
• identify at least one UE in the SR max retransmission UE pool which would enter an SR max retransmission state, based on a last PUSCH uplink time period and a SR max retransmission time period associated with the at least one UE, wherein the last PUSCH uplink time period is a time period elapsed since last PUSCH packet from UE was received, and wherein the SR max retransmission time period is a time period after which the UE would enter the SR max retransmission state;
• and
• allocate a dummy UL grant to the identified at least one UE.

A method, of operating a base station, for handling Scheduling Request (SR) failure in a network, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the base station, a SR Max retransmission triggered Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) from a user equipment (UE);
• determining whether the UE is an SR max retransmission triggered UE, wherein the SR max retransmission triggered UE is a UE which has previously entered the SR max retransmission state;
• and
• identifying one or more Resource Blocks (RBs) allocated for Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to the UE having corresponding uplink control information (UCI) decoding success indicator greater than a threshold indicator, in response to determining that the UE is an SR max retransmission triggered UE;
• and
• allocating the identified one or more RBs to the UE for transmitting one or more subsequent SR.

A base station (110), comprising:

• a communication unit comprising communication circuitry configured to receive a scheduling request (SR) for uplink (UL) grant from a UE;
• a storage unit comprising a memory;
• and
• a controller coupled to the communication unit and the storage unit, wherein the controller is configured to:
• determine whether the UE is a SR max retransmission triggered UE, wherein the SR max retransmission triggered UE is a UE which has previously entered the SR max retransmission state;
• and
• identify one or more Resource Blocks (RBs) allocated for Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to the UE having corresponding uplink control information (UCI) decoding success indicator greater than a threshold indicator, in response to determining that the UE is an SR max retransmission triggered UE;
• and
• allocate the identified one or more RBs to the UE for transmitting one or more subsequent SR.

A method for handling scheduling request (SR) failure, the method comprising:

• measuring elapsed time from a previous uplink grant from a base station to a User Equipment (UE);
• checking whether the elapsed time is more than a pre-defined threshold;
• and
• transmitting, by the base station in response to the checking, a dummy uplink grant to the UE to avoid a scheduling request maximum re-transmission event.