Patent ID: 8155103

Claim:
A method of conveying transport block size (TBS) information from a first node to a second node, comprising: determining one or more transport block size (TBS) parameters for a wireless transmission of data between a first node and a second node based on a first number of transmission layers associated with the wireless transmission, wherein the TBS parameters are to be used in decoding one or more transport blocks transmitted as part of the wireless transmission; generating a control message that includes a rank indicator, wherein the rank indicator indicates both the first number of transmission layers associated with the wireless transmission and the TBS parameters; transmitting the control message to the second node; transmitting at least one transport block to the second node in accordance with the TBS parameters indicated by the control message, wherein the transport block is transmitted over a first number of transmission layers; and retransmitting the at least one transport block to the second node in accordance with the TBS parameters indicated by the control message, wherein the transport block is retransmitted over a second number of transmission layers that differs from the first number of transmission layers.