The invention relates to a downlink transmission scheme that supports downlink HARQ operation and macro-diversity that is capable of overcoming the problem of HARQ protocol de-synchronization when using HARQ in the downlink with multiple data transmitting network nodes. In this scheme, a distributed HARQ protocol operation for downlink data transmissions involving multiple network nodes is provided, where only one network node is terminating downlink HARQ protocol operation towards to mobile terminal, i.e. retransmissions of a data packet are sent from a single network node, a single HARQ transmitter, to the mobile terminal. The multiple network nodes send a first transmission of the data packet to the mobile terminal in a single transmission time interval using HARQ. One of the multiple network nodes is designated as the HARQ terminating node that controls/handles all retransmissions of the data packet.