In embodiments, a user equipment (UE) may transmit, to an evolved Node B (eNB), a background indicator that the UE is in a background mode running one or more background applications and no active applications. The eNB may receive background indicators from a plurality of UEs, and may bundle the background-mode UEs into one scheduling request (SR) allocation block. The individual UEs may be assigned different resource elements within the block on which to transmit an SR indicator (e.g., if the UE has data to send to the eNB). The eNB may lengthen the period between SR allocations for the background-mode UEs compared with active-mode UEs. In some embodiments, the UE may exclusively use the assigned SR allocation instead of a random access channel to notify the eNB that the UE has data to send.