Patent ID: 6842487

Claim:
In a radio communication system, a method of transmitting a signal, comprising the steps of: feeding the signal to a plurality of antenna paths, wherein the signal includes a number of positions, each of the number of positions including a sample; receiving the signal in each of the plurality of antenna paths; for each antenna path, shifting the samples of the signal a predetermined direction and number of positions, wherein the predetermined direction and/or number of positions are different for at least two of the antenna paths, said shifting step including: when shifting sampler toward the end of the signal, shifting samples that are shifted beyond the number of positions in the signal into a corresponding number of positions at a beginning of the signal; and when shifting samples toward the beginning of the signal, shifting samples that are shifted beyond the number of positions in the signal into a corresponding number of positions at the end of the signal; in each antenna path, including a number of samples from the beginning or the end of the signal in a cyclic prefix; transmitting the signal and the cyclic prefix from each of the plurality of antenna paths in a first transmission attempt; determining whether the signal needs to be retransmitted due to fading of the first transmission attempt; if the signal needs to be retransmitted, shifting the samples of the signal in each antenna path a different predetermined direction and/or number of positions than were utilized in the first transmission attempt; in each antenna path, including a different number of samples from the beginning or the end of the signal in a new cyclic prefix; and retransmitting the signal and the new cyclic prefix from each of the plurality of antenna paths in a second transmission attempt.