Patent ID: 8228839

Claim:
A method for use in a wireless multiple-access communication system wherein a headend communicates with a plurality of wireless subscriber stations, and the plurality of wireless subscriber stations use frequency division multiplexing to share an uplink frequency bandwidth, comprising: simultaneously transmitting in a downlink direction a plurality of downlink information signals to a plurality of wireless subscriber stations using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication protocol; receiving a non-orthogonal narrow band frequency division multiplexed uplink signal that comprises a plurality of uplink information signals that are modulated onto respective uplink tones, wherein respective ones of the plurality of uplink information signals are transmitted from respective ones of the plurality of wireless subscriber stations, and respective ones of the uplink information signals are substantially confined to respective sub-hand portions of the uplink frequency bandwidth; and performing frequency-domain filtering to isolate respective signal energies contained in the respective sub-band portions to extract each respective uplink information signal from the plurality of uplink information signals; wherein adjacent ones of the respective uplink tones have a frequency spacing drawn from a range of [0.8T, 1.2T], where T is the narrow band frequency division multiplexed signal's symbol duration, and wherein each of the respective sub-band portions of the uplink frequency bandwidth are equal to or less than the frequency spacing.