Patent ID: 8045447

Claim:
A method for communication, comprising: in a multiple-access communication system that uses multiple subcarriers, allocating first subcarriers to a first communication terminal for transmitting first data, and second subcarriers to a second communication terminal for transmitting second data; assigning the first communication terminal to modulate the first data onto at least some of the first subcarriers using a first multi-carrier modulation scheme to produce a first signal; assigning the second communication terminal to modulate the second data onto at least some of the second subcarriers using a second multi-carrier modulation scheme having a reduced peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) relative to the first multi-carrier modulation scheme to produce a second signal; and communicating simultaneously with the first and second communication terminals by simultaneously receiving the first and second signals over the first and second subcarriers, wherein communicating with the second communication terminal comprises receiving the second signal over multiple different communication channels via multiple antennas, and decoding the second data from the second signal using a decision-directed decoding procedure that processes all subcarriers in parallel by; producing a plurality of soft symbols based on a respective plurality of received and equalized symbols, which are respectively received over at least some of the second subcarriers; applying a Fourier transform to the soft received symbols; providing outputs of the Fourier transform to multiple slicers to produce hard symbol decisions based on the respective soft received symbols; and applying an inverse Fourier transform to the hard symbol decisions.