Patent ID: 8913543

Claim:
A method for implementing diversity in a cellular communications system, comprising: determining, by a primary network node, a first time of a scheduled first transmission of a first packet that is to be wirelessly transmitted from a first device to a relay network node and a second time of a scheduled second transmission of a second packet that is to be wirelessly transmitted from a second device to the relay network node; at the first time, overhearing the scheduled first transmission directly from the first device and generating a first copy of the first packet; at the second time, overhearing the scheduled second transmission directly from the second device and generating a first copy of the second packet; receiving, from the relay network node, a network coded packet in which a second copy of the first packet has been encoded in conjunction with a second copy of the second packet; decoding, using the first copy of the second packet, the network coded packet to extract the second copy of the first packet; and diversity combining the first copy of the first packet with the second copy of the first packet to form a combined first packet.