RANDOM ACCESS PROCEDURE FOR ENHANCED COVERAGE SUPPORT

摘要

Embodiments described herein relate generally to a communication between a user equipment (UE) and an evolved Node B (eNB) that are both running in Enhanced Coverage (EC) mode. The UE and eNB may communicate in a contention-based random access procedure having an EC level that may be used to determine the number of times an RA preamble may be sent, and one or more RA response opportunity windows that may be used to receive one or more RA responses. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

主权项

1. An apparatus to be employed in a user equipment, UE, the apparatus comprising:
one or more processors; a memory coupled to the one or more processors having instructions thereon that when executed cause the processors to:
identify an initial enhanced coverage, EC, level that is to be used in a radio cell during a contention-based random access, RA, procedure, the EC level having at least an associated power level, window of time, and number of send attempts;send a first message to a radio access network, RAN, based on the identified EC level;determine whether a second message from the RAN in response to the first message is received within the window of time;if the second message is received from the eNB within the window of time, decode the received second message; andif the second message is not received from the eNB within the window of time:
re-send the first message to the RAN.