Apparatus and method for communicating uplink signaling information

A base station for receiving uplink signaling information in a cellular communication system;

• the base station comprising:
• a controller configured to allocate a first physical resource and a second physical resource, the controller being configured to allocate the first physical resource and the second physical resource in response to a resource availability characteristic of the first physical resource and the second physical resource;
• and
• a receiver configured to receive scheduling assistance data for a base station based scheduler from a mobile terminal via the first physical resource of an uplink air interface if the first physical resource is allocated and configured to receive the scheduling assistance data via the second physical resource of the uplink air interface if the second physical resource is allocated, the scheduling assistance data relating to physical resource allocation for uplink packet data transmission from the mobile terminal, wherein,
• the first physical resource is not scheduled by the base station based scheduler,
• the first physical resource is arranged to provide an identifier of the mobile terminal, and
• the second physical resource is shared amongst a plurality of mobile terminals by the base station based scheduler.