Random Access Procedures for Link Budget Constrained Wireless Devices

A base station configured to serve a cell, comprising:

• a radio;
• and
• a processing element operably coupled to the radio,
• wherein the processing element and the radio are configured to:
• determine that a preamble message received from a wireless user equipment (UE) device on a physical random access channel does not meet a first correlation threshold and does meet a second correlation threshold, wherein the first correlation threshold is higher than the second correlation threshold;
• select characteristics of a response message transmitted to the UE device based on determining that the preamble message is does not meet the first correlation threshold and does meet the second correlation threshold;
• and
• transmit the response message to the UE device using the selected characteristics.

An integrated circuit (IC) comprising a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to:

• transmit a preamble message to a base station on a physical random access channel;
• receive a random access response message from the base station;
• and
• transmit a radio resource control (RRC) connection request using information from the random access response message, wherein the RRC connection request indicates that the wireless device is link budget constrained.