Patent ID: 7751485

Claim:
A method for processing a signal, the method comprising: obtaining, by a data coding apparatus, time grouping information specifying a quantity of timeslots within a current frame and identifying a group of the timeslots included in the current frame; obtaining a pilot reference value and one or more pilot difference values associated with the identified group of timeslots; and obtaining data elements of the identified group of timeslots, using the pilot reference value and the pilot difference values, wherein: the pilot reference value is dependent on the data elements of the identified group of timeslots, and is not dependent on data elements of an other frame, a quantity of the pilot difference values is equal to a quantity of the data elements of the identified group of timeslots, the pilot reference value is a single value which applies to all of the data elements of the identified group of timeslots, and each pilot difference value corresponds to each data element of the identified group of timeslots.