Stacked carrier discrete multiple tone communication system

A method of digitally communicating comprising the steps of:

• spreading, at a first station, digital information onto each of a plurality of stacked carrier signals using a distinct spreading gain for each stacked carrier signal, each of said plurality of stacked carrier signals having a channel bandwidth that is separable from said channel bandwidth of other of said plurality of stacked carrier signals;
• transmitting each of said stacked carrier signals across a wireless medium from said first station to a second station;
• receiving, at said second station using a multi-element antenna array, said transmitted plurality of stacked carrier signals as received stacked carrier signals;
• channelizing on each element of said array each of said received stacked carrier signals to identify a baseband signal for each of said-received stacked carrier signals;
• despreading by applying despread weights that are different than said spreading gains to each of said received baseband signals and combining said received baseband signals to obtain a baseband signal that compensates for interference and maximizes a signal to noise and interference ratio, said despreading step using a linear combiner dimensionality which is composed of spectral dimensions and spatial dimensions,
• wherein said spatial and spectral dimensions are variable for a plurality of different ones of said first stations;
• and
• wherein each of said distinct spreading gains associated with each of said plurality of stacked carrier signals is linearly independent and non-orthogonal.