Burst-level ARQ-an adaptive low-delay error protection scheme for speech transmission in a TDMA system

Burst-level ARQ, a new error protection scheme for speech transmission in mobile radio is presented. It is based on ARQ (automatic repeat request) which is used on burst level, i.e., only the erroneous bursts are repeated. It is more flexible than a conventional error protection based on forward error correction (FEC) because the redundancy is sent only when required. Furthermore, with limited number of retransmissions, it provides a low delay. A possible burst and frame structure as well as arrangement for retransmissions and acknowledgements are presented and the burst-level ARQ is shown to provide 40% more capacity per carrier when compared with conventional FEC. Also, it is shown that burst-level ARQ with only one retransmission is viable if the burst error rate is less than 15% corresponding to a BER level of less than 10^-2