Radio communication system

A primary station for use in a radio communication system having a random access channel for transmissions from a secondary station to the primary station, wherein means are provided for receiving an access preamble transmitted by the secondary station, which preamble is encoded with a first signature selected from a first set of signatures, for determining the first signature, for determining from the access preamble which random access channel resource the secondary station requests to be allocated and for transmitting an access acknowledgement encoded with a second signature selected from a second set of signatures indicating whether the requested resource is available, wherein the choice of first signature provides further information regarding the resource allocation request and wherein each signature of the second set corresponds to a plurality of signatures in the first set.

A secondary station for use in a radio communication system having a random access channel for transmissions to a primary station, wherein means are provided for requesting allocation of a random access channel resource by transmission of an access preamble encoded with a first signature selected from a first set of signatures and for receiving an access acknowledgement encoded with a second signature selected from a second set of signatures indicating whether the requested resource is available, wherein the choice of first signature provides further information regarding the resource allocation request and wherein each signature of the second set corresponds to a plurality of signatures in the first set.

A method of operating a radio communication system having a random access channel for transmissions from a secondary station to a primary station, the method comprising the secondary station requesting allocation of a random access channel resource by transmission of an access preamble encoded with a first signature selected from a first set of signatures and the primary station receiving the access preamble, determining the first signature and transmitting an access acknowledgement encoded with a second signature selected from a second set of signatures indicating whether the requested resource is available, wherein the choice of first signature provides further information regarding the resource allocation request and wherein each signature of the second set corresponds to a plurality of signatures in the first set.