A method and apparatus for data transmission is provided herein. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention a loss-ratio estimator (105) estimates a current loss (L) for a communication channel (108). Once the actual loss for the channel is known, a generator (104) compares the actual loss (L) to a target loss (T). A retransmission control parameter (R) is then adjusted by the generator (104) and output to a transmitter 103 where it is used to control the retransmission behavior and to determine when to abort a bad frame. When a bad frame is aborted, transmitter 103 indicates the abortion to a receiving device (102). A receiver then utilizes the indication to stop reporting the bad frame in all subsequent ACK/NAKs.