AbstractCombined error correction and detection techniques, or hybrid automatic—repeat—request (ARQ) schemes with negative acknowledgment are considered for highly reliable reverse link data transmission in direct sequence code division multiple access (DS—CDMA) personal communication systems. The proposed selective repeat hybrid ARQ scheme employs an inner convolutional code for error correction and an outer shortened BCH code for error detection. Each negative acknowledgment message contains all packet sequence numbers that have been detected in error, and it is both error—correction and error—detection encoded. Accepted packet error rate and throughput are derived as a function of the error correction encoded frame error rate. An optimum signal—to—interference ratio (SIR) assignment maximizing the system's capacity is also found. A comprehensive simulation is conducted to evaluate performance of the data transmission system. Analysis and simulations show that by applying the proposed type I hybrid ARQ scheme with properly selected system parameters, virtually error free and highly efficient data transmission in CDMA personal communication system