A method is disclosed for coordinating a user equipment's communication with a network during tune back with C-DRX (connected mode discontinuous receive). When a user equipment tunes back to a network after a tune away or a signal fade, a scheduling request is sent to the network to indicate the tune back as quickly as possible. The user equipment waits for a downlink transmission from the network. When the user equipment does not receive the downlink transmission, the method determines if the connection between the user equipment and the network has been released. The sending of the first scheduling request and any additional scheduling requests is coordinated with the C-DRX configuration so as to maximize the battery savings of C-DRX and minimize the latency of the tune back process in case the user equipment has uplink data to send.