Patent ID: 8102832

Claim:
A method of transmitting a wideband pilot in a wireless multi-carrier communication system, comprising: processing, by a pilot generator, at least one pilot symbol with a pseudo-random number (PN) code to obtain a sequence of pilot chips for the wideband pilot; processing, by a modulator, data symbols on different ones of a plurality of subbands in different time intervals as determined by a frequency hopping (FH) sequence and processing the data symbols in accordance with a multi-carrier modulation scheme to obtain a sequence of data chips; time division multiplexing, by a multiplexer, the sequence of pilot chips with the sequence of data chips to obtain a time division multiplexed (TDM) sequence of pilot and data chips, wherein a plurality of periods for sequences of data chips are provided between periods for sequences of pilot chips; and transmitting, by a transmitter, the TDM sequence of pilot and data chips, wherein a time between periods for the sequences of pilot chips comprises a period less than a coherence time for a channel through which the sequences of pilot chips are being transmitted, wherein the wireless multi-carrier communication system is an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication system, and wherein the multi-carrier modulation scheme is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).