Methods and systems for improving retransmission performance of data channels in a wireless communication

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

generating a first plurality of values based on a received data packet;

combining the first plurality of values with a second plurality of values to generate a plurality of combined values, wherein the plurality of combined values are stored in a first buffer and the second plurality of values are stored in a second buffer;

determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on a reliability metric, wherein determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric comprises:

determining a first reliability value corresponding to the plurality of combined values and a second reliability value corresponding to the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric;

overwriting the second buffer with the plurality of combined values if the plurality of combined values are more reliable than the second plurality of values; and

decoding values stored in the second buffer to determine a plurality of decoded bits corresponding to the received data packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and the second plurality of values are log likelihood ratio (LLR) values.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

discarding the plurality of combined values that are stored in the first buffer if the second plurality of values are more reliable.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second plurality of values are associated with the received data packet from a previous hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

decoding one or more control channels to get one or more control grants;

pruning the one or more control grants to obtain a desired control grant associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process; and

receiving the received data packet based on the desired control grant.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the control grants comprise cyclic redundancy check (CRC) passed grants.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reliability metric is defined based on one or more values stored in a buffer and a number of times that each of the one or more values are combined with values from previous transmissions of the received data packet in a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein decoding the values stored in the second buffer comprises:

decoding the values stored in the second buffer using a Turbo decoder.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received data packet is a retransmission of a data packet using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ).

10. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

means for generating a first plurality of values based on a received data packet;

means for combining the first plurality of values with a second plurality of values to generate a plurality of combined values, wherein the plurality of combined values are stored in a first buffer and the second plurality of values are stored in a second buffer;

means for determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on a reliability metric, wherein the means for determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric comprises:

means for determining a first reliability value corresponding to the plurality of combined values and a second reliability value corresponding to the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric;

means for overwriting the second buffer with the plurality of combined values if the plurality of combined values are more reliable than the second plurality of values; and

means for decoding values stored in the second buffer to determine a plurality of decoded bits corresponding to the received data packet.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first and the second plurality of values are log likelihood ratio (LLR) values.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising:

means for discarding the plurality of combined values that are stored in the first buffer if the second plurality of values are more reliable.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the second plurality of values are associated with the received data packet from a previous hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising:

means for decoding one or more control channels to get one or more control grants;

means for pruning the one or more control grants to obtain a desired control grant associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process; and

means for receiving the received data packet based on the desired control grant.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the control grants comprise cyclic redundancy check (CRC) passed grants.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the reliability metric is defined based on one or more values stored in a buffer and a number of times that each of the one or more values are combined with values from previous transmissions of the received data packet in a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein decoding the values stored in the second buffer comprises:

means for decoding the values stored in the second buffer using a Turbo decoder.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the received data packet is a retransmission of a data packet using hybrid automatic repeat request.

19. A computer-program product for wireless communications, comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors and the instructions comprising:

instructions for generating a first plurality of values based on a received data packet;

instructions for combining the first plurality of values with a second plurality of values to generate a plurality of combined values, wherein the plurality of combined values are stored in a first buffer and the second plurality of values are stored in a second buffer;

instructions for determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on a reliability metric, wherein determining reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric comprises:

determining a first reliability value corresponding to the plurality of combined values and a second reliability value corresponding to the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric;

instructions for overwriting the second buffer with the plurality of combined values if the plurality of combined values are more reliable than the second plurality of values; and

instructions for decoding values stored in the second buffer to determine a plurality of decoded bits corresponding to the received data packet.

20. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising at least one processor configured to:

generate a first plurality of values based on a received data packet,

combine the first plurality of values with a second plurality of values to generate a plurality of combined values, wherein the plurality of combined values are stored in a first buffer and the second plurality of values are stored in a second buffer,

determine reliability of the plurality of combined values and the second plurality of values based on a reliability metric by determining a first reliability value corresponding to the plurality of combined values and a second reliability value corresponding to the second plurality of values based on the reliability metric;

overwrite the second buffer with the plurality of combined values if the plurality of combined values are more reliable than the second plurality of values, and

decode values stored in the second buffer to determine a plurality of decoded bits corresponding to the received data packet; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.