Efficient bandwidth request for broadband wireless networks

摘要

Methods (200) and apparatuses (500) for scheduling transmissions between a base station and multiple user stations in a broadband wireless access network may include a subscriber station generating (215) a bandwidth request which includes one of a limited number of available and predefined preamble sequences (210) and a data portion identifying the resources requested. The subscriber station randomly selects (205) a contention slot in a wireless channel, allocated by the base station, for sending a bandwidth request. The receiving base station is able to detect (220) the preamble sequence of bandwidth requests and differentiate between subscribers even when bandwidth requests of two or more subscribers may collide by virtue of selecting the same contention slot. In this manner, latency and overhead of bandwidth requests may be improved. Additional variants and embodiments are also disclosed.