US Patent 9980284 Contention-based reservations of network resources

In a wireless (e.g., machine-to-machine) network, items of user equipment compete for wireless communication resource slots (“resources”). In a contention period, an item of user equipment (a UE) sends a first signal to a base station using a first resource. The first resource is mapped to a second resource in a data transmission period. If the base station successfully receives the first signal, it sends a second signal to the UE to confirm that the UE has been awarded the second resource and can transmit data in the data transmission period.