Patent ID: 8024633

Claim:
A method of packet decoding at a receiver utilizing retransmission requests for failed packets comprising: receiving packets of encoded information bits transmitted from a transmitter to the receiver; generating soft values for each packet; decoding each packet based on its corresponding soft values; requesting retransmission for failed packets, wherein failed packets are packets that fail decoding; receiving combined packets responsive to retransmission requests, each combined packet formed at the transmitter as a logical combination of two or more previously transmitted packets, including one or more failed packets; for each combined packet received at the receiver, identifying which two or more previously transmitted packets were used by the transmitter to form the combined packet; generating soft values for each combined packet, and correspondingly generating revised soft values for the one or more failed packets associated with the combined packet by forming weighted combinations of the soft values of the combined packet and the soft values previously generated for the one or more failed packets; and re-decoding failed packets based on their corresponding revised soft values.