Embodiments of user equipment and methods for reducing delay in a radio-access network (RAN) are generally described herein. Embodiments disclosed herein provide enhancements that may be applicable to a 3GPP LTE RAN for reducing delay that may be particularly beneficial for real-time over-the-top (OTT) applications. Some embodiments provide for an uplink delayed buffer status report. Some embodiments provide for a downlink congestion and buffer report. Some embodiments provide for traffic characteristic based inter-UE prioritization.