Patent ID: 9706526
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A method in a network node in a cellular communication system for supporting random access, the method comprising: determining at least one uplink radio resource, amongst a plurality of radio resources that are available to the network node for scheduling, to be set aside to facilitate random access by user equipments to one or more other network nodes; sending scheduling information to one or more user equipments served by the network node, while refraining from scheduling uplink communication in the at least one uplink radio resource, thus leaving the at least one uplink radio resource unscheduled, and thus enabling a user equipment in an area with an uplink/downlink imbalance to perform random access to a neighbor second network node; and indicating the determined, unscheduled, at least one uplink radio resource to at least one of the neighbor second network node, a neighbor third network node, and an operations and maintenance (OaM) node.