Patent ID: 9531509
Filing Date: 2016-12-27
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for transmitting an information signal on a radio channel using at least two hybrid automatic retransmission request, HARQ, codewords, comprising: mapping said HARQ codewords, one for each HARQ process available for simultaneous transmission, onto a first number of layers to generate said information signal having a first transmission rank equal to the first number of layers, wherein at least one of said HARQ codewords is mapped to at least two layers and comprises a block of information bits; initially transmitting said information signal on said radio channel; and retransmitting said block of information bits comprised in said one of the HARQ codewords, with a second transmission rank on said radio channel, wherein the second transmission rank is at least two and less than the first transmission rank, using one of said HARQ processes, the retransmitting comprising: generating one retransmission codeword based on said block of information bits; mapping said retransmission codeword to a second number of layers; and transmitting said retransmission codeword at said second transmission rank equal to the second number of layers, wherein the second number of layers is the same number of layers to which said one of the HARQ codewords was mapped to in the initial transmission, and wherein the layers are symbol streams which are input in parallel to a precoder.