METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR USER-MULTIPLEXING IN MULTIPLE ACCESS SYSTEMS WITH RETRANSMISSION

摘要

According to one aspect of the invention, a method is provided in which a group of users in a system that employs a retransmission mechanism such as Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is divided into multiple sub-groups of users. Each user is assigned a number of channels for transmission of information. The number of channels assigned to each user is determined based, at least in part, on the number of the sub-groups and a number of channels available in the system. Transmission intervals are alternated among the multiple sub-groups such that only one of the sub-groups of users is allowed to transmit information during any transmission interval. An idle interval during which a particular user in the first group does not transmit information is used as a waiting period for acknowledgement of a previous transmission by the particular user.