Patent ID: 8254925

Claim:
A method for use in a connection establishment procedure, comprising: transmitting a request message from a User Equipment (UE) to a network entity through a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer; setting an initial value of a counter, and setting a threshold value of the counter; and indicating, by the MAC layer, whether the request message has been transmitted successfully, if the MAC layer indicates that the request message has not been transmitted successfully, ending the connection establishment procedure with failure and without starting a timer in the UE; or if the MAC layer indicates that the request message has been transmitted successfully, starting the timer in the UE; and if a response from the network entity is received before the timer expires, stopping the timer, or if no response from the network entity is received before the timer expires, retransmitting the request message to the network entity, changing the current value of the counter and returning to the process of the MAC layer indicating whether the request message has been transmitted successfully, if the current value of the counter is not greater than the threshold value of the counter; or ending the connection establishment procedure with failure, if the current value of the counter is greater than the threshold value of the counter.