Patent ID: 8428161

Claim:
An apparatus for transmitting data via a plurality of antennas, the apparatus comprising: a space-time encoder configured to map a plurality of symbols to the plurality of antennas using a first antenna mapping for transmitting a first data unit to a receiver, the first data unit including a payload, the payload comprising the plurality of symbols; a symbol vector interleaver configured to map the plurality of symbols to a plurality of subcarriers using a first subcarrier mapping for transmitting the first data unit; and a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) controller configured to determine whether the receiver has successfully received the first data unit, and in response to determining that the receiver has not successfully received the first data unit, to (i) cause the space-time encoder to map the plurality of symbols to the plurality of antennas using a second antenna mapping for transmitting a second data unit to the receiver, the second data unit including the payload, wherein the second antenna mapping is different than the first antenna mapping, and (ii) cause the symbol vector interleaver to map the plurality of symbols to the plurality of subcarriers using a second subcarrier mapping for transmitting the second data unit, wherein the second subcarrier mapping is different than the first subcarrier mapping.