Uplink synchronization management in wireless networks

A wireless networking system, comprising:

• a base-station;
• a plurality of user devices in communication with the base-station;
• wherein the base-station selectively assigns each user device to one of an uplink synchronized state and an uplink non-synchronized state;
• wherein the base-station allocates a unique reduced identifier to each user device in the uplink synchronized state for requesting resources in a contention-free manner, but does not allocate unique reduced identifiers to user devices in the non-synchronized state;
• and
• wherein a number of bits used for each unique reduced identifier is selected based on a maximum number of uplink synchronized user devices to be supported by the base-station.

A method, comprising:

• receiving uplink resource requests from a plurality of user devices of a wireless network, each of the resource requests indicating a priority level;
• assigning the user devices to one of an uplink synchronized state and an uplink non-synchronized state based on the priority levels;
• managing uplink synchronization states of the user devices based on timers that track an amount of time that passes since at least one of a preceding uplink transmission and a preceding received timing adjustment command and based on scheduling requests received via a non-synchronized random access (NSRA) channel;
• and
• allocating a unique reduced identifier to each user device of the uplink synchronized state for requesting resources in a contention-free manner, but not to user devices of the uplink non-synchronized state.

A method, comprising:

• receiving uplink resource requests from a plurality of user devices of a wireless network, each of the resource requests indicating a priority level;
• assigning the user devices to one of an uplink synchronized state and an uplink non-synchronized state based on the priority levels;
• managing uplink synchronization states of the user devices based on timers that track an amount of time that passes since at least one of a preceding uplink transmission and a preceding received timing adjustment command and based on scheduling requests received via a non-synchronized random access (NSRA) channel;
• and
• allocating a unique reduced identifier to each user device of the uplink synchronized state for requesting resources in a contention-free manner, but not to user devices of the uplink non-synchronized state, wherein a number of bits used for each unique reduced identifier is selected based on a maximum number of uplink synchronized user devices to be supported.