Patent ID: 8081562

Claim:
A method for configuring an acknowledgement mode of a HARQ re-transmission protocol used for acknowledging a delivery of data packets containing data of a service provided from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity in a wireless communication system further comprising a controlling entity in a radio access network, the method comprising the following steps: configuring, by the controlling entity, based on at least one of a Quality of Service attribute or a physical layer parameter, one of a first and a second acknowledgement mode according to which the HARQ re-transmission protocol can be operated, wherein the configured acknowledgement mode is to be used by the receiving entity for acknowledging the delivery of data packets, transmitting a data packet from the transmitting entity to the receiving entity, receiving and decoding the data packet by the receiving entity, and transmitting an acknowledgement message according to the configured acknowledgement mode in response to the receiving of said data packet by the receiving entity, wherein, in case the data packet has not been decoded successfully by the receiving entity, the acknowledgement message in the first acknowledgement mode indicates one of a plurality of decoding quality levels of the data packet obtained when decoding the data packet at the receiving entity, and wherein, in case the data packet has not been decoded successfully by the receiving entity, the acknowledgement message in the second acknowledgement mode indicates a decoding failure of the data packet.