HARQ management to enhance performance, reduce overhead and latency

A method of Physical Layer (PHY) processing in a radio access network between a Base Station (BS) and one or more User Equipment (UEs) comprising

• Using a soft buffer memory to store Log-Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) for a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process of each UE for HARQ combining;
• Using a HARQ combing block to combine the LLRs of a retransmitted transport block (TB) and the stored LLRs in the soft buffer and passes the combined LLRs to a decoder for decoding each code-block (CB) in a TB;
• Using a CB cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checking module to perform CRC checking of each CB;
• Storing a result of the CRC checking in an ACK/NACK buffer;
• Using a CB concatenation module to remove a CRC attached to each CB and concatenate them into a TB;
• Using a TB CRC checking block to conduct CRC checking for a TB;
• and,
• Removing an attached CRC for the TB and passes decoded information bits and CRC checking result for the TB a High portion of the physical layer (High PHY).