Method and apparatus for time efficient retransmission using symbol accumulation

Abstract

An efficient retransmission of data using symbol accumulation wherein the packet received in error is retransmitted at a lower energy-per-bit level concurrently in the same frame with the new packet. The destination device receives the data transmission and retransmission, demodulate the signal, and separates the received data into the new and retransmitted packet. The destination device then accumulates the energy of the retransmitted packet with the energy already accumulated for the packet received in error and decodes the accumulated packet. The accumulation of the additional energy provided by the subsequent retransmissions improves the probability of a correct decoding. The throughput rate can be improved since the packet received in error is retransmitted concurrently with the transmission of the new data packet. The capacity is maximized since the retransmission of the packet received in error is at a lower energy level than that of the new packet.

Description

BACKGROUND 1. Field The present invention relates to data communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel and improved method and apparatus for the efficient retransmission of data using symbol accumulation. 2. Background The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) are known in the art. However, the spread spectrum modulation techniques of CDMA has significant advantages over other modulation techniques for multiple access communication systems. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled “SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS,” assigned to th...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

In the exemplary embodiment, the source device responds to the NACK message by retransmitting the packet received in error concurrently with the transmission of the new data packet. The destination device receives the data transmission and retransmission, demodulates the signal, and separates the received data into the new packet and the retransmitted packet. The destination device then accumulates the energy of the received retransmitted packet with the energy already accumulated by the destination device for the packet received in error. The destination device then attempts to decode the accumulated data packet. The accumulation of the additional energy provided by the subsequent retransmissions improves the probability of a correct decoding. Alternately, the destination device can decode the retransmitted packet by itself without combining the two packets. In both cases, the throughput rate can be improved since the packet received in error is retransmitted concurrently with the transmission of the new data packet.

It is an object of the present invention to maintain the throughput rate of a communication system in the presence of channel impairments. In the exemplary embodiment, a data packet which is received in error is retransmitted by the source device concurrently with the new data packet within the same time period. Alternately, the packet received in error can be retransmitted on an additional traffic channel which is independent of the traffic channel used to transmit the new packet. Since the retransmitted packet does not delay or impede the transmission of the new packet, the throughput rate is maintained during the retransmission of the packet received in error.

It is yet another object of the present invention to improve the performance of the decoding of the packets received in error by performing the maximal ratio combining of the transmitted and retransmitted packets. For a communication system which supports coherent demodulation with the use of a pilot signal, the destination device performs a dot product of the received symbols with the pilot signal. The dot product weighs each symbol in accordance with the signal strength of the received signal and results in the maximal ratio combining. Within a transmission or a retransmission, the scalar values from each dot product circuit which has been assigned to a signal path are coherently combined to obtain combined scalar values. The combined scalar values from multiple transmission and retransmissions are also coherently combined. The dot product and coherent combination improve the performance of the subsequent decoding step. For a communication system which does not transmit a pilot signal, the symbols from multiple transmission and retransmissions are scaled according to the received signal-to-noise ratios of the received transmission or retransmissions before accumulation.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, the reverse link capacity is limited by the total interference which a remote station experiences from other remote stations.

A high transmission power from the base station can cause excessive interference with other base stations.

Alternatively, if the transmission power of the base station is too low, the remote station can receive erroneous data transmissions.

Terrestrial channel fading and other known factors can affect the quality of the forward link signal as received by the remote station.

The CRC check is not able to correct the error.

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