Method for cooperative relaying within multi-hop wireless communication systems

1. A method for cooperative relaying within multi hop wireless communication systems, the method comprising:

transmitting one or more data packets by a subscriber station;

receiving the one or more data packets by one or more relay stations and a base station;

sending by the one or more relay stations information about the one or more data packets including a plurality of hard sliced channel bits and a Logarithmic Likelihood Ratio (LLR) quality information to the base station;

combining by the base station the information received from the one or more relay stations with stored information about the one or more data packets;

decoding of the transmission from the subscriber station using the combined information by the base station; and

requesting a retransmission from the subscriber station when the decoding is not successful.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

repeating the transmitting, receiving; sending; combining; and decoding steps in response to the retransmission request.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising after the receiving step:

decoding the received one or more data packets by the one or more relay stations and the base station.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

when the decoding is successful, sending an acknowledgement (ACK) by the base station to both the subscriber station and the one or more relay stations.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

when the decoding is not successful, sending by the base station an explicit NACK to the Subscriber Station and the one or more Relay Stations.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

repeating the transmitting, receiving; sending; combining; and decoding steps in response to the explicit NACK.

7. A method for cooperative relaying within multi hop wireless communication systems, the method comprising:

receiving at a relay station, a transmission of one or more data packets from a subscriber station;

computing by the relay station a channel bit Logarithmic Likelihood Ratio (LLR) quality information associated with the one or more data packets;

sending by the relay station a bandwidth (BW) request to a base station, wherein the bandwidth request includes a reliability metric comprising an average magnitude of the channel bit LLRs; and

when the subscriber station's direct transmission was not successfully decoded previously by the base station, at the base station:

processing the bandwidth request, and

based on the included reliability metric, determining an additional number of channel bit LLRs that are needed at the base station to result in a successful decoding of the one or more data packets.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising prior to the sending by the relay station the bandwidth (BW) request to the base station:

decoding by the relay station the one or more data packets; and

when the packet is successfully decoded at the relay station, setting a high value for the reliability metric for inclusion in the bandwidth (BW) request.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising prior to the sending by the relay station the bandwidth (BW) request to the base station:

decoding by the relay station the one or more data packets; and

when the packet is not successfully decoded at the relay station, computing the reliability metric based on the channel bit LLRs for inclusion in the bandwidth (BW) request.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising after the sending by the relay station the bandwidth (BW) request to the base station:

determining by the base station whether or not the original subscriber station's direct transmission was successfully decoded at the base station; and

when the subscriber station's direct transmission was successfully decoded at the base station previously, not granting the bandwidth request to the relay station.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising when the subscriber station's direct transmission was not successfully decoded previously by the base station, at the base station:

granting the bandwidth request to the relay station to transmit the determined additional number of channel bit LLRs that are needed at the base station to result in a successful decoding of the one or more data packets.

12. A method for cooperative relaying within multi hop wireless communication systems, the method comprising:

receiving at a plurality of relay stations, a transmission of one or more data packets from a subscriber station;

computing by each of the relay stations a channel bit Logarithmic Likelihood Ratio (LLR) quality information associated with the one or more data packets;

sending by each of the relay stations a bandwidth (BW) request to a base station, wherein the bandwidth request includes a reliability metric comprising an average magnitude of the channel bit LLRs; and

when the subscriber station's direct transmission was not successfully decoded previously by the base station, at the base station:

processing each of the bandwidth requests, and

based on each of the included reliability metric, granting the bandwidth requests for at least some of the relay stations for transmission of the channel bit LLRs.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein each of the reliability metrics included with each of the bandwidth requests for the at least some of the relay stations which the base station grants associated bandwidth requests is above a predetermined threshold.

14. A method for cooperative relaying within multi hop wireless communication systems, the method comprising:

receiving at a plurality of relay stations and a base station, a transmission of one or more data packets from a subscriber station;

computing by each of the relay stations a channel bit Logarithmic Likelihood Ratio (LLR) quality information associated with the one or more data packets; and

forwarding of the channel bit LLRs from at least some of the relay stations to the base station when the subscriber station's direct transmission was not successfully decoded previously by the base station.