Soft-combining for hybrid automatic repeat request feedback

A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

• receiving a multi-user packet including a plurality of transport blocks combined into a combined transport block, wherein each transport block, of the plurality of transport blocks, is separately encoded using a first encoding technique and aggregated into the combined transport block, and wherein a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to the plurality of transport blocks are jointly encoded as a set using a second encoding technique that is distinct from the first encoding technique;
• transmitting hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback indicating a decoding failure of a particular transport block of the multi-user packet;
• and
• receiving a retransmission of one or more packets to convey one or more transport blocks, including the particular transport block, subject to one or more respective decoding failures.

A network entity for wireless communication, comprising:

• one or more memories;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to:
• transmit, to a group of user equipments (UEs), a multi-user packet including a plurality of transport blocks combined into a combined transport block, wherein each transport block, of the plurality of transport blocks, is separately encoded using a first encoding technique and aggregated into the combined transport block, and wherein a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to the plurality of transport blocks are jointly encoded as a set using a second encoding technique that is distinct from the first encoding technique;
• receive, from one or more UEs of the group of UEs, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback indicating a decoding failure of one or more transport blocks of the multi-user packet;
• and
• retransmit one or more packets to convey the one or more transport blocks subject to the decoding failure.

A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

• one or more memories;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to:
• receive a multi-user packet including a plurality of transport blocks combined into a combined transport block, wherein each transport block, of the plurality of transport blocks, is separately encoded using a first encoding technique and aggregated into the combined transport block, and wherein a plurality of sub-headers corresponding to the plurality of transport blocks are jointly encoded as a set using a second encoding technique that is distinct from the first encoding technique;
• transmit hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback indicating a decoding failure of a particular transport block of the multi-user packet;
• and
• receive a retransmission of one or more packets to convey one or more transport blocks, including the particular transport block, subject to one or more respective decoding failures.