Apparatus, method and computer program product providing fast and reliable uplink synchronization using dedicated resources for user equipment in need of synchronization

摘要

A method includes determining if a user equipment has a need to establish uplink synchronization with a base station. In response to determining that the user equipment has the need to establish uplink synchronization with the base station, a determination is made if uplink resources are available on a non-contention-based channel for the user equipment. In response to determining that uplink resources are available on the non-contention-based channel for the user equipment, the uplink resources are dedicated on the non-contention-based channel to the user equipment and an indication of the dedicated uplink resources is communicated to the user equipment. Using at least the uplink resources, the user equipment is synchronized on the non-contention-based channel in order to receive information from the user equipment.