DISABLING, USING AN EXPLICIT INDICATION, HYBRID AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST (HARQ) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR PACKETS FOR WHICH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ARE SUPPORTED AT A NETWORK OR HIGHER LAYER

摘要

A first communications device including a transmitter identifies a packet flow for which end to end packet retransmission is supported. The first wireless communications device transmits an explicit indication in a downlink message to a second wireless communications device, to skip Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback for data, corresponding to the first packet flow, said data being directed to the second wireless communications device. In some embodiments, said explicit indication to skip Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback for data is a predetermined value in a predetermined field of a downlink control information (DCI) scheduling message. In some embodiments, the predetermined field is a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field. HARQ suppression is applied for the first packet flow at a radio link layer and/or MAC layer, e.g., by the second communications device in response to the predetermined value indicating HARQ suppression being recovered from the predetermined field.