Patent ID: 8837413

Claim:
A method of receiving control information for an uplink in a network, the method comprising: receiving, by at least one Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer in the network, a MAC-e Protocol Data Unit (PDU) from a User Equipment (UE) via an Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) which is an uplink transport channel handled by the at least one MAC sub-layer; and acquiring the control information from the received MAC-e PDU, the control information indicating an amount of resources required by the UE, wherein: a first format of the MAC-e PDU is received when the control information is included with other information in the MAC-e PDU and a second format of the MAC-e PDU is received when only the control information is included in the MAC-e PDU; the first format of the MAC-e PDU includes a first indicator having a first specific value to indicate that the MAC-e PDU includes the control information; and a second indicator, which is received via an Enhanced Dedicated Physical Channel (E-DPCCH), has a second specific value to indicate that the second format of the MAC-e PDU includes only the control information.