System and method for communications with reduced peak to average power ratio

A method for receiving data, the method comprising:

• transforming, by a receiving device, data symbols received from a plurality of transmitting devices into a plurality of subcarrier samples;
• equalizing, by the receiving device, sparse code multiple access (SCMA) resources formed from the plurality of subcarrier samples;
• and
• decoding, by the receiving device, SCMA codewords generated from the equalized SCMA resources to produce data bits associated with transmitting devices in the plurality of transmitting devices.

A transmitting device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to configure the transmitting device to:
• modulate binary bits with a constellation to produce modulated symbols,
• precode the modulated symbols to obtain ns groups of precoded samples, where ns is greater than one,
• map the ns groups of precoded samples to groups of subcarriers in accordance with a sparse pattern to obtain a plurality of subcarrier-mapped samples, and
• transmit a signal generated from the plurality of subcarrier-mapped samples.