Embodiments of a system and methodology are disclosed for aperiodic (i.e., non-periodic) feedback of channel-side information, such as channel rank information, to a base station by having the receiver/UE initiate the feedback instead of using a scheduled feedback approach. The autonomous feedback of channel-side information may use one of several different types of physical channel structures for uplink scheduling requests, such as those being discussed for inclusion in the emerging LTE platform standard.