Patent ID: 8175014

Claim:
A method of using a relay to provide physical (PHY) and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) functionalities to a transmitter and a receiver, the method comprising: a first radio link control (RLC)/automatic repeat request (ARQ) unit in the transmitter generating an RLC protocol data unit (PDU) and forwarding the RLC PDU to a first medium access control (MAC)/HARQ unit in the transmitter; the first MAC/HARQ unit in the transmitter sending a MAC PDU that contains at least a portion of the RLC PDU to a second MAC/HARQ unit in the relay; the second MAC/HARQ unit in the relay forwarding the MAC PDU to a third MAC/HARQ unit in the relay and providing HARQ feedback to the first MAC/HARQ unit in the transmitter in response to receiving the MAC PDU; the third MAC/HARQ unit in the relay transmitting the MAC PDU to a fourth MAC/HARQ unit in the receiver; and the third MAC/HARQ unit in the relay receiving HARQ feedback sent by the fourth MAC/HARQ unit in response to receiving the MAC PDU.