Aperiodic Scheduling of Uplink Grants in a Wireless Communication System

A base station, comprising:

• at least one antenna;
• at least one transmitter coupled to the antenna;
• at least one receiver coupled to the antenna;
• one or more processors coupled to the at least one transmitter and the at least one receiver;
• wherein the base station is configured to:
• receive information from a user equipment device (UE), wherein the information is usable by the base station to determine an uplink grant schedule;
• determine an uplink grant schedule based on the information received from the UE, wherein the uplink grant schedule is aperiodic;
• issue aperiodic uplink grants to the UE according to the uplink grant schedule;
• and
• receive uplink communications from the UE in response to the issued uplink grants.

An apparatus, comprising:

• at least one processing element, wherein the processing element is configured to:
• communicate information to a base station, wherein the information may be usable by the base station to determine an uplink grant schedule, wherein the uplink grant schedule is aperiodic;
• receive uplink grants from the base station according to the uplink grant schedule, wherein the uplink grants are received in an aperiodic fashion;
• and
• generate uplink communications to the base station in response to the received uplink grants.