Method and apparatus for communicating deliver of data packets to a user equipment in a wireless communication system

A method for communicating delivery of a data packet to a user equipment, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of data packets from a Node B via a first wireless link;
• conveying one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets to a user equipment via a second wireless link;
• maintaining a status of data packets received from the Node B but not yet acknowledged to the Node B;
• assembling a status report indicating which data packets of the plurality of data packets have one or more of not been transmitted to the user equipment and been transmitted to the user equipment but for which an acknowledgement has not been received from the user equipment;
• and
• conveying the status report to the Node B via a wireless backhaul link.

A wireless relay node comprising:

• a radio frequency receiver;
• a radio frequency transmitter;
• an at least one memory device;
• and
• a processor that is configured to receive a data packet from a Node B via the radio frequency receiver and a first wireless link, store the received data packet in the at least one memory device, convey the received data packet to a user equipment via the radio frequency transmitter and a second wireless link, determine whether the user equipment is likely to handoff, and in response to determining that the user equipment is not likely to handoff, sending by the relay node to Node B a first acknowledgement, wherein the first acknowledgement indicates that the relay node received the data packet from Node B, before the relay node receives a second acknowledgement, wherein the second acknowledgement indicates that the user equipment received the received data packet conveyed by the relay node, and in response to determining that the user equipment is likely to handoff and in response to receiving the second acknowledgement from the user equipment, sending by the relay node the first acknowledgment of the data packet to the Node B.

A wireless relay node comprising:

• a radio frequency receiver;
• a radio frequency transmitter;
• an at least one memory device;
• and
• a processor that is configured to receive a plurality of data packets from a Node B via the radio frequency receiver and a first wireless link, convey one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets to a user equipment via the radio frequency transmitter and a second wireless link, maintain, in the at least one memory device, a status of data packets received from the Node B but not yet acknowledged to the Node B, assemble a status report indicating which data packets of the plurality of data packets have one or more of not been transmitted to the user equipment and been transmitted to the user equipment but for which an acknowledgement has not been received from the user equipment, and convey the status report to the Node B via the radio frequency transmitter and a wireless backhaul link.