A method and system provide determining whether to pursue grant free transmission in accordance with a size of at least one packet in a first buffer of at least one buffer and determining a size of a grant free transport block (GFTB) in accordance with a configuration of radio resources available for grant free transmission in instances where grant free transmission is to be utilized. The method also includes populating the GFTB with first data from at least one of the buffers to produce a populated GFTB and transferring the GFTB from a media access control (MAC) layer to a physical layer (PHY).