Patent ID: 7210089

Claim:
A method of transmitting a message comprising: (i) receiving a selection of a transmission format from a predetermined plurality of transmission formats associated with a corresponding coding rate, whereby a selected format is obtained; (ii) generating from the message a first version of encoded data having a first coding rate; (iii) permuting said first version to obtain a plurality of further versions of said data also having the first coding rate, said plurality of further versions comprising systematic bits and parity bits; (iv) converting one of said plurality of further versions to a second coding rate, wherein during the conversion, the systematic bits are punctured, the second coding rate being the corresponding coding rate of the selected format, and transmitting, in the selected format, a first signal generated from the converted version; (v) in response to a retransmission request, if the selected format is one of a predetermined subset of the formats, retransmitting, in the selected format, the first transmitted signal; and (vi) in response to a retransmission request, if the selected format is not one of a predetermined subset of the formats, retransmitting, in the selected format, a further signal generated from another of said plurality of further versions and having said second coding rate.