Patent 7895494 was granted and assigned to InterDigital on February, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method and system for implementing hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ)-assisted automatic repeat request (ARQ) in a wireless communication system are disclosed. When an H-ARQ negative acknowledgement (NACK)-to-positive acknowledgement (ACK) error occurs, the H-ARQ receiver sends an H-ARQ NACK-to-ACK error indicator to the H-ARQ transmitter unless a maximum retransmission limit has reached, a maximum time for delivery has expired or a lifespan of the failed packet has expired. The H-ARQ transmitter sends a local NACK to the ARQ transmitter so that the failed packet is recovered at an ARQ level. The H-ARQ receiver sends a local NACK to the ARQ receiver if the H-ARQ receiver does not receive the failed packet before certain conditions occur. The ARQ receiver may send a status report to the ARQ transmitter for recovery of the failed packet.