Method and System for Handling Congestion in a Communications System

A method for operating a base station (BS) in a network, the method comprising:

• receiving, by the BS, an AAI ranging request (AAI-RNG-REQ) message from a mobile-to-mobile (M2M) device in a ranging channel of the network, wherein the AAI-RNG-REQ message comprises a retrials field that specifies a number of failed trials in a current ranging process of the M2M device.

A method comprising:

• receiving a ranging request message from a device, wherein the ranging request message comprises a ranging retries parameter specifying a number of ranging retries that the device performed during a current ranging attempt, and
• wherein the ranging retires parameter species a first value to indicate that a first ranging attempt was successful, a second value to indicate that a second ranging attempt was successful, a third value to indicate that a third ranging attempt was successful, and a fourth value to indicate that a fourth or later ranging attempt was successful.