Method and Apparatus for Resegmentation of Packet Data for Retransmission on HARQ Transmission Failure

Abstract

A method for packet data retransmission on Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) Transmission failure having the steps of: checking whether changes to HARQ transmission error performance characteristics are greater than a threshold and/or a deterioration of channel conditions is indicated or less than threshold; if yes, re-segmenting an RLC-SDU or RLC-PDU data into smaller PDU data sizes; and transmitting said re-segmented RLC-PDU data; and if not yes, transmitting previous RLC-PDU data.

1 . A method for packet data retransmission from a network node to a user equipment on Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest ‘HARQ’ transmission failure, the method comprising:
 determining that a handover is not indicated; 
 determining that at least one or both of (a) a number of HARQ transmission failure is greater than a threshold and (b) a deterioration of channel conditions is indicated, wherein the threshold is a maximum number of HARQ transmissions; 
 resegmenting a Radio Link Control Protocol Data Unit ‘RLC-PDU’ data into smaller PDU data sizes; and 
 transmitting said resegmented RLC-PDU data such that the HARQ transmission failure is remedied. 
 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining that the handover is not indicated further comprises:
 determining that the handover is indicated; and   waiting until process of the handover is complete.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the handover is indicated by a radio resource control ‘RRC’ protocol or a layer 2 level signaling. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the RRC protocol indicates to a radio link control ‘RLC’ layer if handover is expected when a measurement report is received or generated. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the deterioration of channel conditions is based on a number of a most recent channel quality indicator (Nc). 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the deterioration of channel conditions is determined if a gradient channel quality indicator is less than a threshold, wherein the threshold is of gradient channel quality. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is performed at the RLC layer. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the re-segmenting comprises re-segmenting based on a segment size which is reported by a medium access control ‘MAC’ layer or a RRC layer. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the re-segmenting is performed at the MAC layer. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the re-segmented data is passed from the RLC layer to the MAC layer. 
     
     
         11 . A network node for retransmiting packet data to a user equipment on Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest ‘HARQ’ transmission failure, the network node configured to:
 determine that a handover is not indicated; 
 determine that at least one or both of (a) a number of HARQ transmission failure is greater than a threshold and (b) a deterioration of channel conditions is indicated, wherein the threshold is a maximum number of HARQ transmissions; 
 resegment a Radio Link Control Protocol Data Unit ‘RLC-PDU’ data into smaller PDU data sizes; and 
 transmit said resegmented RLC-PDU data such that the HARQ transmission failure is remedied. 
 
     
     
         12 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the network node configured to determine that the handover is not indicated further comprises that the network node is configured to:
 determine that the handover is indicated; and   wait until process of the handover is complete.   
     
     
         13 . The network node of  claim 12 , wherein the handover is indicated by a radio resource control ‘RRC’ protocol or a layer 2 level signaling. 
     
     
         14 . The network node of  claim 13 , wherein the RRC protocol indicates to a radio link control ‘RLC’ layer if handover is expected when a measurement report is received or generated. 
     
     
         15 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the deterioration of channel conditions is based on a number of a most recent channel quality indicator (Nc). 
     
     
         16 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the deterioration of channel conditions is determined if a gradient channel quality indicator is less than a threshold, wherein the threshold is of gradient channel quality. 
     
     
         17 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the method is performed at the RLC layer. 
     
     
         18 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the network node is configured to re-segment based on a segment size which is reported by a medium access control ‘MAC’ layer or a RRC layer. 
     
     
         19 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the network node is configured to re-segment at the MAC layer. 
     
     
         20 . The network node of  claim 11 , wherein the re-segmented data is passed from the RLC layer to the MAC layer.