Patent ID: 7397838

Claim:
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based spread spectrum multiple access wireless communications method comprising: operating each of a plurality of adjacent base stations to transmit pilot tones according to one of a plurality of different pilot tone hopping sequences over at least a portion of a pilot sequence transmission time period, said portion including multiple symbol time periods, at least one of the different transmitted pilot tone hopping sequences including at least two pilot tones per symbol time period which are separated from one another by at least two tones during said portion of said pilot sequence transmission time period, said transmitting of a pilot tone hopping sequence performed by at least one of the adjacent base stations including transmitting the same number of pilot tones in each successive symbol time period in said portion of said pilot sequence transmission period but changing the frequency of the transmitted pilot tones from one symbol time period to the next symbol time period by a frequency shift corresponding to a fixed number of tones; and wherein said step of operating each of a plurality of adjacent base stations to transmit pilot tones includes controlling adjacent base stations to use different frequency shifts to generate pilot tone hopping sequences resulting in different pilot tone slopes for adjacent base stations which can be determined from the frequency shift of the transmitted pilot tones used in consecutive symbol time periods.