Patent ID: 8156407

Claim:
A method for memory management in a communications system using a HARQ error control mechanism, in which a transmitter establishes a plurality of HARQ channels with a receiver, the receiver comprising a HARQ memory for storing encoded HARQ packets, a HARQ reception processor for receiving at least one HARQ burst through each of said plurality of HARQ channels, for converting each of said received HARQ bursts into a received encoded HARQ packet, for combining encoded HARQ packets, and for retrieving or storing encoded HARQ packets from or in said HARQ memory means, an FEC decoder for decoding each of said encoded HARQ packets stored in the HARQ memory as they are provided by said HARQ reception processor, and for generating FEC decoding status information indicating whether each of said encoded HARQ packets is successfully decoded; the method comprising determining whether each of said received encoded HARQ packets needs to be combined with an encoded HARQ packet already stored in said HARQ memory, and in case a received encoded HARQ packet does not need to be combined, determining whether there is a free memory space available in said HARQ memory for storing said received encoded HARQ packet, and if so, allocating said free memory space for storage of said received encoded HARQ packet; and, wherein in case there is not a free memory space available in said HARQ memory for storing said received encoded HARQ packet, determining whether a certain amount of memory space can be forced to be freed, and if so, de-allocating said determined certain amount of memory space and allocating it for storage of said received encoded HARQ packet, before said received encoded HARQ packet is sent to the FEC decoding.