Patent ID: 7412218

Claim:
A method for separating K symbol streams, each of the K symbol streams being conveyed by K respective orthogonally spread channels in a receiver chain, the K channels including a first set of N channels and a second set of M channels, each of the N channels being spread according to a corresponding one of N orthogonal sequences and each of the M channels being spread according to one of the N orthogonal sequences, the method comprising: despreading the first set of N channels so as to generate N separate channels; detecting, from the N separate channels, a set of N symbols wherein each of the N symbols is conveyed by a corresponding one of the N channels; generating a first interference signal due to the first set of N channels based upon the set of N symbols; subtracting the interference signal from the second set of M channels; despreading the second set of M channels so as to generate M separate channels; detecting, from the M separate channels, a set of M symbols wherein each of the M symbols is conveyed by a corresponding one of the M channels; and providing K separate symbols wherein the K separate symbols include the set of N symbols and the set of M symbols.