Methods for packet combining in HARQ systems over bursty channels

The performance of ARQ systems can be improved by combining current and prior transmissions at the receiver. Two techniques for combining outputs in a packet-based communication system are presented. In both techniques the fundamental unit of retransmission is a packet, and the fundamental unit of combining is a codeword. The techniques are analyzed for a bursty channel and a system that employs Reed–Solomon coding and bounded-distance errors-and-erasures decoding. Performance results show that the packet-combining schemes provide significant gains in throughput and reductions in error probability when compared with a system that does not employ combining. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.