A method of operating a device (102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112) in a peer to peer network, the method comprising: receiving a signal on a set of communications resources, wherein the communications resources are individual tone-symbols (402, 452); identifying a first subset of the set of communications resources on which a signal of interest was communicated, wherein the identifying includes selecting, as said first subset, resources corresponding to a device identifier of a peer to peer communications device implementing said method; determining based on the received energy corresponding to individual sub-portions of said first subset of the set of communications resources, if one or more sub-portions of the received signal of interest are reliable by generating an estimate of the average power per signal sub-portion corresponding to the first subset of communications resources and determining that sub-portions having a sub-portion signal power within a threshold range of said average power are reliable; and recovering, from the sub-portions of the received signal of interest which are determined to be reliable, a communicated control signal, wherein said communicated control signal uses the position of tone-symbols in said first subset on which energy is transmitted to encode the control signal being transmitted, wherein the placement of signal energy on the first subset of communication resources being used to create a pattern,and wherein recovering the communicated control signal includes: generating an interference estimate based on energy received on a second subset of communications resources, wherein the second subset of the set of communications resources includes communications resources in the set of communications resources which are not included in the first subset; using said interference estimate to determine which of the individual sub-portions of the received signal of interest, which are determined to be reliable, include energy of the signal of interest; performing a positional decoding operation based on the position of tone-symbols in said first subset which are determined to be reliable. receiving a signal on a set of communications resources, wherein the communications resources are individual tone-symbols (402, 452); identifying a first subset of the set of communications resources on which a signal of interest was communicated, wherein the identifying includes selecting, as said first subset, resources corresponding to a device identifier of a peer to peer communications device implementing said method; determining based on the received energy corresponding to individual sub-portions of said first subset of the set of communications resources, if one or more sub-portions of the received signal of interest are reliable by generating an estimate of the average power per signal sub-portion corresponding to the first subset of communications resources and determining that sub-portions having a sub-portion signal power within a threshold range of said average power are reliable; and recovering, from the sub-portions of the received signal of interest which are determined to be reliable, a communicated control signal, wherein said communicated control signal uses the position of tone-symbols in said first subset on which energy is transmitted to encode the control signal being transmitted, wherein the placement of signal energy on the first subset of communication resources being used to create a pattern,and wherein recovering the communicated control signal includes: generating an interference estimate based on energy received on a second subset of communications resources, wherein the second subset of the set of communications resources includes communications resources in the set of communications resources which are not included in the first subset; using said interference estimate to determine which of the individual sub-portions of the received signal of interest, which are determined to be reliable, include energy of the signal of interest; performing a positional decoding operation based on the position of tone-symbols in said first subset which are determined to be reliable. generating an interference estimate based on energy received on a second subset of communications resources, wherein the second subset of the set of communications resources includes communications resources in the set of communications resources which are not included in the first subset; using said interference estimate to determine which of the individual sub-portions of the received signal of interest, which are determined to be reliable, include energy of the signal of interest; performing a positional decoding operation based on the position of tone-symbols in said first subset which are determined to be reliable.