Patent ID: 8625480

Claim:
A method for a relay node (RN) to access a network, comprising: receiving by a base station, a network access message comprising information for identifying the RN; and enabling the RN to access the network through the base station according to the information for identifying the RN, wherein the information for identifying the RN is one of the following: a random access message dedicated to the RN or an initial signaling bearer connection establishment request message, wherein: the random access message dedicated to the RN comprises a dedicated preamble which distinguishes the RN from a user equipment (UE), and the dedicated preamble is either assigned to the RN or not assigned to the RN, when dedicated preamble is assigned to the RN, the dedicated preamble is sent by the RN to the base station, when the dedicated preamble is not assigned to the RN, the RN selects another preamble from a group of RN preamble subsets in an internal cell to dedicate the another preamble to the RN, and the RN then sends the selected another preamble to the base station; and the initial signaling bearer connection establishment request message comprises a RN identifier for identifying the RN only, wherein the RN identifier enables the RN to access the network through the base station.