Patent ID: 6940809

Claim:
A method for transmitting data frames in a communications system comprising a transmitter and a receiver, comprising: transmitting a data frame from said transmitter to said receiver; when said transmitter receives a request from the receiver for retransmission of said data frame, retransmitting said data frame to the receiver without transmitting a signaling message identifying said retransmitted data frame; receiving said retransmitted data frame at said receiver; comparing said received retransmitted data frame to data frames stored in a buffer, the data frames stored in the buffer comprising data frames that were received with errors; identifying a first data frame stored in the buffer which potentially corresponds to the received retransmitted data frame; and combining the received retransmitted data frame with the first data frame to form a combined data frame; and wherein the comparing comprises determining whether a likelihood of a match between said received retransmitted data frame and one of said data frames in said buffer exceeds a first predetermined threshold; and wherein the identifying comprises identifying a data frame in which the likelihood of a match exceeds the first predetermined threshold as the first data frame; and further comprising: performing an error check on the combined data frame; and when said combined data frame does not pass the error checking, said receiver performs the following: storing in said buffer either said combined data frame, or said received retransmitted data frame and said first data frame, depending on whether the likelihood of the match exceeds a second predetermined threshold; and sending another retransmission request to said transmitter to request said transmitter to again retransmit said data frame.