A method is described for providing Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmission feedback to a higher layer protocol in a communication system. The method includes a step of detecting HARQ retransmissions in a first layer protocol. This can be used to determine a HARQ failure or an HARQ ACK after a delay of some retransmissions. A next step includes providing feedback information about the detecting step from the first layer protocol to a higher layer protocol. A next step includes instituting corrections at the higher layer protocol, in response to the information transferred from the first layer protocol. These corrections can include immediate retransmission of those bursts of a HARQ failure, or correcting timers to match the delay of eventually ACK'ed data.