Highly bandwidth efficient communications

A highly bandwidth-efficient communications method, comprising:

• a) receiving at a base station during a first time period a first spread signal comprising a plurality of signal clusters, each signal cluster comprising a plurality of symbols redundantly spread over a plurality of discrete tones in accordance with a first spreading code;
• b) adaptively despreading the signal received at the base station by using despreading codes that are based on the characteristics of the received spread signal;
• c) spreading, at the base station, using second spreading codes, a second data signal comprising a plurality of signal clusters, each signal cluster comprising a plurality of symbols, said second spreading codes derived from said despreading codes for a single symbol tone in a given cluster, the second spreading codes being applied to said plurality of symbol tones in a given cluster, said spreading step thereby spreading the second data signal over a plurality of discrete tones, to form a second spread signal;
• and
• d) transmitting said second spread signal during a second time period.

A highly bandwidth-efficient communications system, comprising:

• a base station receiving from a remote station during a first time period, a first spread signal comprising a first data signal redundantly spread over a plurality of discrete tones in accordance with a first spreading code;
• a signal despreader at the base station despreading the first spread signal using despreading codes that are adaptively based on at least one characteristic of the received first spread signal;
• a signal spreader at the base station spreading a second data signal using second spreading codes derived from said despreading codes, said second spreading codes redundantly spreading the second data signal over a plurality of discrete tones, to form a second spread signal;
• and
• said base station transmitting said second spread signal during a second time period to the remote station.