Patent ID: 8744360

Claim:
A communications method comprising: receiving at a transceiver of a given terminal over a frequency band a plurality of signals including multiple access interference that is dependent on transmissions of a plurality of terminals other than the given terminal, the plurality of terminals communicating with the transceiver over a geographic area, and receiving at the transceiver co-channel interference that is independent of the transmissions of the plurality of terminals other than the given terminal; and reducing interference of the plurality of signals sequentially by first reducing the co-channel interference that is independent of the transmissions of the plurality of terminals other than the given terminal to generate a plurality of interference reduced signals, and then reducing the multiple access interference in the plurality of interference reduced signals that is dependent on the transmissions of the plurality of terminals other than the given terminal, after the first reducing the co-channel interference; wherein reducing the multiple access interference that is dependent on the transmissions of the plurality of terminals other than the given terminal after the first reducing the co-channel interference comprises generating a set of channel estimates based on the co-channel interference reduced signals, generating a set of bit estimates from the co-channel interference reduced signals, and performing multiple access interference reduction on the co-channel interference reduced signals using the set of channel estimates and the bit estimates.