Patent ID: 8194588

Claim:
A receiver for wireless communication with a hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ) mechanism, comprising: at least one buffer for storing data for a previously received HARQ transmission divided into a plurality of coding blocks and having an incorrect decoded message, the data for each of the plurality of coding blocks being HARQ combined signal data or decoded bits; at least one combiner configured to generate the HARQ combined signal data for each coding block based on signal data for a current HARQ transmission and signal data for the previously received HARQ transmission; a decoder configured to produce decoded bits for each coding block based on the HARQ combined signal data; and control logic configured to select between saving the HARQ combined signal data or the decoded bits for each coding block to the at least one buffer based on a selection criterion, wherein the selection criterion comprises saving the decoded bits when the decoded bits are correctly decoded and saving the HARQ combined signal data when the decoded bits are incorrectly decoded, wherein the at least one combiner comprises a first combiner at a first location and a second combiner at a second location downstream of the first location along a reception processing path and the control logic is configured to select between one of the first and second combiners to generate the HARQ combined signal data.