System and method for retransmission of voice packets in wireless communications

A method for controlling wireless communications, said method comprising:

• transmitting from a first communication unit to a base station an inbound voice packet at a rate greater than a generation rate of the inbound voice packet, wherein the difference in rate between the transmission and generation of the inbound voice packet creates spare bandwidth;
• receiving by the first communication unit from the base station a decode status in response to receiving the inbound voice packet at the base station from a last transmission, the decode status indicating whether the inbound voice packet of the last transmission was received by the base station in a correctable form;
• retransmitting from the first communication unit to the base station the inbound voice packet using the created spare bandwidth when the decode status indicates to the first communication unit that the inbound voice packet of the last transmission by the first communication unit was received by the base station in an uncorrectable form;
• and
• limiting a number of the retransmissions from the first communication unit to the base station to a predetermined value by (i) monitoring a difference between a number of inbound voice packets generated at the first communication unit and a number of inbound voice packets successfully transmitted by the first communication unit, the difference representing a number of the inbound voice packets generated that have accumulated in a communication buffer of the first communication unit, and (ii) limiting the number of the inbound voice packets accumulated in the communication buffer to the predetermined value.

A wireless communications system comprising:

• a base station and a plurality of communication units for communicating with the base station;
• and
• a first communication unit of the plurality of communication units configured to transmit to the base station an inbound voice packet at a rate greater than a generation rate of the inbound voice packet, wherein the difference in rate between the transmission and generation of the inbound voice packet creates spare bandwidth, the base station configured to send a decode status to the first communication unit in response to receiving the inbound voice packet from the first communication unit, the decode status indicating whether the inbound voice packet was received by the base station in a correctable form, the first communication unit configured to retransmit the inbound voice packet to the base station using the created spare bandwidth when the decode status sent by the base station to the first communication unit indicates that a last transmission of the inbound voice packet was received by the base station in an uncorrectable form, and the first communication unit further configured to limit a number of the retransmissions of the inbound voice packet to the base station to a predetermined value;
• the first communication unit being configured to monitor a difference between a number of inbound voice packets generated at the first communication unit and a number of inbound voice packets successfully transmitted by the first communication unit, the difference representing a number of inbound voice packets accumulated in a buffer of the first communication unit, and to limit the number of inbound voice packets accumulated in the buffer to the predetermined value.