Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission schemes for a wireless local area network (WLAN)

A method for communicating a method for communicating according to a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

• encoding, at a first communication device according to a non-rate-matching coding scheme at a particular coding rate, a set information bits to generate a set of coded bits, the non-rate-matching coding scheme defining different information block lengths, for a set of codeword block lengths, to be used for generating coded bit streams at different ones of multiple coding rates;
• generating, at the first communication device, a first physical layer (PHY) data unit to include all the coded bits in the set of coded bits;
• transmitting, by the first communication device, the first PHY data unit in an initial hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission via a communication channel to a second communication device;
• determining, at the first communication device, that the second communication device was not able to properly decode the set of coded bits based on the initial HARQ transmission;
• in response to determining that the second communication device was not able to properly decode the set of coded bits based on the initial HARQ transmission,
• selecting, at the first communication device, a first subset of the set of coded bits, the first subset of the set of coded bits including some, but not all, coded bits that were included in the initial HARQ transmission, and
• generating, at the first communication device, a second PHY data unit to i) include the coded bits selected for the first subset of the set of coded bits and ii) exclude coded bits, of the set of coded bits, not selected for the first subset of the set of coded bits;
• and
• transmitting, by the first communication device, the second PHY data unit in a HARQ retransmission via the communication channel to the second communication device to enhance the reliability of decoding the set of coded bits at the second communication device, wherein using frequency diversity for the partially repeated coded bits transmitted in HARQ retransmission and combining soft information of partially repeated coded bits at the second communication device facilitate the decoding, and wherein the transmission of the second PHY data unit does not include the excluded coded bits and does not change the particular coding rate of the set information bits received in the first PHY data unit coded as the set of coded bits.