Method and arrangement for retransmission using HARQ

1. A method in a mobile terminal of communicating information to a base station, the method comprising:

transmitting multiple copies of the information in a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process to the base station in a first transmission as a transmission time interval (TTI) bundle that includes several consecutive TTIs starting with a first TTI, wherein the transmitting further comprises:

transmitting a first copy of the information in a first TTI of the TTI bundle, the first TTI marking the start of an initial HARQ round trip time (RTT); and

retransmitting one or more copies of the first copy of the information in subsequent TTIs of the TTI bundle before receiving an acknowledgment from the base station;

responsive to receiving a HARQ NACK from the base station after the entire TTI bundle has been transmitted, which indicates that the multiple copies of the information has not been successfully received, retransmitting the information as a second TTI bundle that also includes several consecutive TTIs containing the multiple copies of the information, starting at a subsequent HARQ round trip.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the HARQ NACK is received from the base station when an initial number of retransmissions was not sufficient.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the number of TTIs to be used in the first transmission in a Medium Access Control (MAC) control message or via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the same number of TTIs are used for the transmission of the first and second TTI bundles.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first TTI bundle, the second TTI bundle, or both, are transmitted using four TTIs.

6. A method in a base station of communicating information to a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

configuring the mobile terminal to transmit multiple copies of the information in a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process as a transmission time interval (TTI) bundle;

receiving the multiple copies of the information relating to the single HARQ process in several consecutive TTIs starting with a first TTI, wherein receiving further comprises:

receiving a first copy of the information in a first TTI of the TTI bundle, the first TTI marking the start of an initial HARQ round trip time (RTT); and

receiving one or more copies of the first copy of the information in subsequent TTIs of the TTI bundle before transmitting an acknowledgment;

transmitting a HARQ NACK in response to determining that the multiple copies of the information was not correctly received; and

receiving a retransmission of the multiple copies of the information as a second TTI bundle, starting at a subsequent HARQ round trip time.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the configuring further comprises transmitting the number of TTIs to be used in the first transmission in a Medium Access Control (MAC) control message or via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the same number of TTIs are used for the reception of the first and second TTI bundles.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first TTI bundle, the second TTI bundle, or both, are received using four TTIs.

10. A mobile terminal for communicating information to a base station, the mobile terminal comprising:

a transmitter;

a receiver;

a memory; and

a processor;

the memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the mobile terminal to:

transmit multiple copies of the information in to a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process to the base station as a transmission time interval (TTI) bundle that includes several consecutive TTIs starting with a first TTI, wherein transmit of the multiple copies of the information further comprises:

transmitting a first copy of the information in a first TTI of the TTI bundle, the first TTI marking the start of an initial HARQ round trip time (RTT); and

retransmitting one or more copies of the first copy of the information in subsequent TTIs of the TTI bundle before receiving an acknowledgment from the base station;

receive a HARQ NACK from the base station after the entire TTI bundle has been transmitted, which indicates that the information has not been successfully received; and

retransmit the information as a second TTI bundle that also includes several consecutive TTIs containing the multiple copies of the information, starting at a subsequent second HARQ round trip time.

11. A base station for communicating information to a mobile terminal, the base station comprising:

a transmitter;

a receiver;

a memory; and

a processor;

the memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, configure the base station to:

configure the mobile terminal to transmit multiple copies of the information in a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process as a transmission time interval (TTI) bundle;

receive the multiple copies of the information relating to the single first HARQ process as a TTI bundle using several consecutive TTIs starting with a first TTI, wherein receipt of the multiple copies of the information further comprises:

receiving a first copy of the information in a first TTI of the TTI bundle, the first TTI marking the start of an initial HARQ round trip time (RTT); and

receiving one or more copies of the first copy of the information in subsequent TTIs of the TTI bundle before transmitting an acknowledgment;

transmit a HARQ NACK in response to determining that the multiple copies of the information was not correctly received; and

receive a retransmission of the multiple copies of the information as a second TTI bundle, starting at a subsequent HARQ round trip time.