Patent ID: 8239723

Claim:
A method to establish a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation in a transmitter running in a wireless network, the method comprising: utilizing, by the transmitter, a downlink frequency-division duplexing (FDD) frame to perform a downlink transmission, the downlink FDD frame comprising: a first downlink gap having a length, N dg1 ; a downlink zone having a length, N d , wherein the downlink zone comprises one or more sub-frames that are used for downlink data burst transmissions; and a second downlink gap having a length, N dg2 , wherein N dg1 , N d , and N dg2 are integer values of size zero or greater; utilizing, by the transmitter, an uplink frequency-division duplexing (FDD) frame to receive an uplink transmission, the uplink FDD frame comprising: a first uplink gap having a length, N ug1 ; an uplink zone having a length, N u ; and a second uplink gap having a length, N ug2 , wherein N ug1 , N u , and N ug2 are integer values of size zero or greater; obtaining, by the transmitter, one or more network characteristics of the wireless network in which uplink and/or downlink transmissions are to take place, wherein the one or more network characteristics are selected from a group consisting of a number of sub-frames per uplink FDD frame, a variable transmission time interval length, whether a legacy zone is used, whether a relay zone is used, and whether an acknowledge channel (ACKCH) is used; wherein the transmitter utilizes one or more timing relationship rules, the network characteristics, and the downlink FDD frame, to perform downlink HARQ transmissions and to receive uplink HARQ transmissions.