Patent ID: 7657815
Filing Date: 2010-02-02
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for avoiding soft buffer corruption in a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) protocol in a mobile communication system comprising a communication terminal and a plurality of base stations, wherein said communication terminal is in communication with said plurality of base stations during a soft handover, the method comprising: receiving data from the communication terminal in a soft handover by at least one of the base stations employing one of plural HARQ processes of the HARQ protocol, wherein said communication terminal is in communication with said plurality of base stations during the soft handover, storing said received data in a soft buffer region of a HARQ soft buffer of said at least one of the base stations, wherein the soft buffer region is associated to the HARQ process employed to receive the data, decoding by said at least one of the base stations the data stored in said soft buffer region associated to the HARQ process employed to receive the data, and employing an elapsed time since storing said data in the soft buffer region associated to the HARQ process employed to receive the data to flush by said at least one base station the soft buffer region associated to the HARQ process employed to receive the data, whereby soft buffer corruption is avoided.