Systems and methods of reducing control plane latency in a 5G IAB network are described. SRs transmitted between nodes indicate that a control plane PDU is to be transmitted. The SRs use periodic resources or OCCs reserved for control plane signaling and are initiated by an RRC message or RACH from the UE. The SRs are initiated if the LCID field in the MAC subheader of the RRC message indicates the CCCH or the DCCH logical channel. If the PDU is available after the original resource, a resource is used that is provided via another grant, which is periodically provided or automatically initiated due to failure to transmit on the original grant. The SR or RRC message can also specify a delayed timeslot for the grant. For contention-based procedures the RACH preamble is randomly selected or selected from among a set of RACH preambles assigned for RRC procedures.