Patent ID: 8358679

Claim:
A relay station for being operative in a mobile communication system, comprising: a receiver for receiving a radio signal from a source, the radio signal comprising symbols representing an encoded information, the encoded information being based on an encoding rule and comprising payload information and redundancy information, wherein the receiver is adapted for receiving another radio signal from another source, the other radio signal comprising other symbols representing other encoded information, the other encoded information being based on another encoding rule and comprising other payload information and other redundancy information, and wherein the receiver is adapted for providing a signal quality measure for the radio signal and another signal quality measure on the other radio signal; a soft detector for detecting a symbol from the radio signal to obtain soft information, the soft information comprising information on the symbol and reliability information on the information on the symbol, wherein the soft detector is adapted for detecting another symbol from the other radio signal to obtain another soft information, the other soft information comprising an information on the other symbol and reliability information on the information on the other symbol; a quantizer for quantizing the soft information and the other soft information jointly and/or wherein the quantizer is adapted for quantizing a combination of the soft information and the other soft information to obtain quantized soft information, wherein the quantizer is adapted for quantizing based on a quantization rule and wherein the quantization rule is based on the signal quality measure and on the other signal quality measure and on a transmission capacity between the relay station and a destination, wherein the quantization rule is such that if the signal quality measure indicates a higher signal quality than the other signal quality measure, the quantized soft information comprises a higher share of the transmission capacity for the soft information than for the other soft information; and a transmitter for transmitting an information on the quantized soft information to a destination and for the transmitting an information on the quantization rule to the destination.