Abstract: A random access method and a base station are provided, wherein the method comprises: a base station assigning a relay-dedicated random access preamble to a relay, wherein the relay-dedicated random access preamble indicates an access priority of the relay to be higher than that of an ordinary UE (S502); the base station receiving the relay-dedicated random access preamble sent from the relay and a random access preamble sent from the ordinary UE (S504); and the base station performing, when determining the relay-dedicated random access preamble is received, a non-contention-based random access preferentially for the relay (S506). Through the above processes, the time taken by random access of the relay to the network can be saved, and the success ratio of random access of the relay to the network is increased.