Patent ID: 8831122

Claim:
A method of transmitting a plurality of communications signals over a plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments in a frequency band, comprising: defining a plurality (N FFT ) of orthogonal subcarriers across the frequency band; defining a plurality (N) of available physical subcarriers from among the orthogonal subcarriers, wherein the available physical subcarriers are distributed among the plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments; receiving M data symbols for each of K users; spreading the data symbols of each user by an L-bit spreading code associated with the user to provide M spread data symbols for each of the K users by applying the L-bit spreading code by mapping different chips of the spreading code to the available physical subcarriers over the plurality of discontiguous bandwidth segments; combining the M spread data symbols associated with each of the K users to provide M composite data signals; converting the M composite data signals to parallel input signals having a length L; interleaving the M parallel input signals to provide Q interleaved input signals having a length N; assigning the Q interleaved input signals to the N available physical subcarriers; and transmitting the Q interleaved input signals on the N available physical subcarriers.