Method and apparatus for retransmission management for reliable hybrid arq process

Abstract

A method for transmitting a packet from a transmitter to a receiver in a wireless communication system begins by building a packet by a transport format combination (TFC) selection process, and the packet is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. If the transmitter receives an indication that the packet was not successfully received at the receiver, the packet is retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure. If the HARQ procedure did not successfully transmit the packet, then the packet is retransmitted via a retransmission management (RM) procedure. If the RM procedure did not successfully transmit the packet, then the packet is discarded by the transmitter.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
 at least one processor configured to implement a radio link control (RLC) sublayer and lower layers including a medium access control (MAC) sublayer and a physical layer; wherein the at least one processor is configured such that the RLC sublayer provides a protocol data unit (PDU) to the lower layers for transmission; wherein the at least one processor is further configured such that the lower layers using a HARQ entity transmit the PDU to a base station; wherein the at least one processor is further configured such that the RLC sublayer provides the PDU in response to an indication from the lower layers for retransmission.   
     
     
         2 . The IC of  claim 1  wherein the indication from lower layers is from the HARQ entity. 
     
     
         3 . The IC of  claim 1  wherein the RLC sublayer provides the PDU in response to an indication from lower layers for retransmission without an indication from an RLC sublayer of a network 
     
     
         4 . The IC of  claim 1  wherein the RLC sublayer comprises an acknowledge mode (AM) RLC entity and the providing of the PDU for transmission and retransmission is by the AM RLC entity. 
     
     
         5 . An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:
 at least one processor configured to implement a radio link control (RLC) sublayer and lower layers including a medium access control (MAC) sublayer and a physical layer; wherein the at least one processor is configured such that the RLC sublayer provides a protocol data unit (PDU) to the lower layers for transmission; wherein the at least one processor is further configured such that the lower layers using a HARQ entity transmit the PDU to a base station; wherein the at least one processor is further configured such that the RLC sublayer provides the PDU in response to an indication from the lower layers for retransmission.   
     
     
         6 . The IC of  claim 5  wherein the indication from lower layers is from the HARQ entity. 
     
     
         7 . The IC of  claim 5  wherein the RLC sublayer comprises an acknowledge mode (AM) RLC entity and the providing of the PDU for transmission and retransmission is by the AM RLC entity. 
     
     
         8 . A method for confirming transmission of a packet in wireless communications, comprising:
 transmitting a packet by a transmitter;   receiving an indication whether the packet was successfully transmitted;   retransmitting the packet via a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure on a condition that the packet was not successfully transmitted; and   retransmitting the packet using a retransmission management (RM) procedure on a condition that the HARQ procedure did not successfully retransmit the packet.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: discarding the packet on a condition that the RM procedure did not successfully retransmit the packet. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the packet is assigned a transmission sequence number (TSN) by the transmitter for the first transmission attempt, and the packet retains the same TSN during the HARQ procedure and the RM procedure. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein the TSN identifies a packet at a radio link control level. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the TSN is a combination of an upper layer sequence number and a sequence number of a multiplexed packet. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the TSN is a combination of an upper layer sequence number and a sequence number of a segmented packet. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the TSN is a combination of an upper layer sequence number and a byte offset to identify each segment of the packet. 
     
     
         15 . The method according to  claim 11 , wherein the discarding includes:
 sending a message from the transmitter, including the TSN of the discarded packet.