Patent ID: 7639659

Claim:
A Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) control apparatus for detecting a message received over a packet data control channel in a mobile communication system in which a base station transmits a packet data control message over at least one packet data control channel and transmits packet data to a mobile station over a packet data channel, the apparatus comprising: a control channel decoder for decoding a control message received over the packet data control channel; a HARQ controller of a physical layer, for receiving the decoded control message from the control channel decoder, determining based on the decoded control message at least one of whether to perform demodulation and decoding on a packet received over the packet data channel, whether to update a Walsh mask, and whether to perform state transition on the mobile station, and performing, based on the determination, at least one of outputting demodulation and decoding parameters, updating a Walsh mask, and outputting a state transition value to an upper layer; a data channel demodulator for demodulating packet data received over the packet data channel upon receiving a demodulation parameter from the HARQ controller; and a decoder for decoding the packet data demodulated by the data channel demodulator upon receiving a decoding parameter from the HARQ controller; wherein the HARQ controller comprises: a state function section for extracting demodulation and decoding parameters for packet data received over a packet data channel from a control message received from the control channel decoder, outputting the extracted parameters to the data channel demodulator and the decoder, and outputting current state information of the data channel demodulator and the decoder; and a HARQ state machine for determining a next state using the current state information of the data channel demodulator and the decoder, and output from the state function section; wherein the parameter output from the state function section to the data channel demodulator and the decoder includes a start point and a last point of an available Walsh code, information on whether a received packet is an initially transmitted packet or a retransmitted packet, a value indicating the number of transmissions for received packet data, size information of packet data, and a demodulation level.