Patent ID: 8824415

Claim:
A node of a wireless network, the node comprising: processor circuitry that is configured to obtain an identification of a cell and a subframe on which a user equipment shall transmit a random access preamble and to encode the identification of the cell and the subframe on which the user equipment shall transmit the random access preamble into at least one unused bit position of a physical downlink control channel random access order; and a transmitter that is responsive to the processor circuitry and is configured to transmit the physical downlink control channel random access order including the identification of the cell and the subframe that was encoded into the at least one unused bit position of the physical downlink control channel random access order, wherein the physical downlink control channel random access order uses a downlink control information format and wherein the at least one unused bit position comprises at least one bit position of a redundancy version field and at least one bit position of a transmit power control field.