Patent ID: 10153868

Abstract:
Apparatus and methods for a hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) mechanism for wireless communication devices of a wireless local area network (WLAN) are disclosed. Methods and apparatus to determine whether a packet is an original, first transmission or a retransmission of a previously transmitted packet without decoding the payload of the packet are disclosed. Medium access control (MAC) addresses of a transmitter, such as an access point (AP), and a receiver, such as a station (STA), of a WLAN are encoded separately with a retransmission bit to indicate whether the packet is retransmitted. For an aggregated MAC protocol data unit (A-MPDU), a sequence number is included to determine which MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) of the A-MPDU are retransmitted. When retransmission is indicated, the receiver of the STA performs a hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) process to combine the retransmitted packet with previously received packets.