A robust receiver-based packet combining scheme for wireless data networks

The performance of ARQ systems can be improved by combining current and prior transmissions at the receiver. A technique for combining outputs at the receiver in a packet-based wireless system is presented. The technique is analyzed for a mobile channel and a system that employs Reed-Solomon coding and bounded-distance errors-and-erasures decoding. Performance results show that a receiver employing packet combining provides significant gains in throughput and reductions in packet error probability when compared with a receiver that does not employ combining. Useful results and calculations for general (n,k) q-ary block codes have been also established. These results include expressions for the probability of repeating particular decoder errors with successive retransmissions