Method and apparatus for triggering radio link control packet discard and radio link control re-establishment

Abstract

A method and apparatus for triggering radio link control (RLC) re-establishment and/or protocol data unit (PDU) discard are disclosed. An RLC entity maintains a state variable for counting a total number of transmissions and/or retransmissions of an RLC PDU and its PDU segments. If the state variable reaches a threshold, the RLC entity initiates RLC re-establishment and/or discards the RLC PDU and PDU segments. The state variable may be incremented each time a negative acknowledgement is received for at least a portion of the RLC PDU or when a retransmission is considered for the RLC PDU or a portion of the RLC PDU. The RLC entity may increase a state variable proportionate to a retransmitted data size. The RLC entity may maintain separate state variables for the RLC PDU and PDU segments and counts the number of transmissions and/or retransmissions for the RLC PDU and the PDU segments.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.