A real ARQ scheme for improving decision space resolution

The maximal number of transmission attempts in automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes is a positive integer, thus constraining decision space in all optimization problems where it is involved. Motivated by this fact we develop a new retransmission scheme, rARQ, and introduce the expected value of maximal number of allowed transmission attempts as a decision variable, which in rARQ is a non-negative real number. Packet-loss probability and the expected number of transmission attempts are compared for an example of rARQ and traditional ARQ scheme. The analysis shows that ARQ is a subset of rARQ and that rARQ improves decision space resolution from positive integers to non-negative real numbers.