Patent ID: 8917593

Claim:
A method for wireless communication, comprising: receiving a request for a random access procedure at a user equipment in a wireless communication network, wherein the user equipment is configured to operate with a plurality of component carriers comprising uplink and downlink component carriers of the wireless communication network, wherein the plurality of component carriers include a primary uplink component carrier and one or more secondary uplink component carriers, and wherein the request is received on a first downlink component carrier of the plurality of component carriers; selecting an uplink component carrier from among the plurality of component carriers for transmitting a random access message based on an association between the uplink and downlink component carriers, the selecting comprising either (a) selecting an uplink component carrier based on user-equipment specific signaling that links the first downlink component carrier to the selected uplink component carrier, or otherwise, (b) in the absence of user-equipment specific signaling that links the first downlink component carrier to the selected uplink component carrier, selecting an uplink component carrier based on an association between the selected uplink component carrier and the first downlink component carrier as specified by system information block (SIB2) signaling, wherein whether (a) or (b) is used is dependent upon signaling received by the user equipment; transmitting the random access message on the selected uplink component carrier; and receiving a response to the transmitted random access message.