Patent ID: 7945836
Filing Date: 2011-05-17
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for reducing signaling overhead in a communication system using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), the method comprising: identifying at least one block of data to be transmitted in a slot from a transmitting unit to a receiving unit; for each block of data to be transmitted for the first time, determining a slot identifier (SI) value based on a frame structure and a block identifier (BI) value based on a position of the block within the slot; storing the SI value, the BI value and bits from the block of data in a memory for each block of data to be transmitted for the first time; clearing an SI field and a BI field in a header if all the blocks of data to be transmitted in the slot will be transmitted for the first time; otherwise, setting at least one bit in the SI field and the BI field in the header such that the receiving unit is capable of determining which blocks of data are a retransmission and which information to retrieve from its memory to HARQ combine with the blocks of data that are a retransmission; and transmitting the slot comprising the header and the at least one block of data to the receiving unit.