Patent ID: 7154961

Claim:
An ARQ re-transmission method in a wireless communication system wherein data packets are transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver using a first transmission and at least a second transmission based on a repeat request, the method comprising: modulating data packets at the transmitter using a first modulation scheme to obtain first data symbols; performing the first transmission by transmitting the first data symbols over a first diversity branch to the receiver; modulating said data packets at the transmitter using a second modulation scheme to obtain second data symbols; performing the second transmission by transmitting the second data symbols over a second diversity branch to the receiver; demodulating the received first and second data symbols at the receiver using the first and second modulation schemes respectively; and diversity combining the demodulated data received over the first and second diversity branches, wherein: the modulation schemes are 16 QAM and a number of log2 (M) modulation schemes are used.