Uplink pilot and signaling transmission in wireless communication systems

A method for transmitting pilot signals on an uplink in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising:

• partitioning a plurality of usable subbands suitable for use for data transmission into a plurality of disjoint groups of subbands, wherein each group in the plurality of disjoint groups includes the same number of subbands;
• assigning one group in the plurality of disjoint groups to each of at least two terminals, wherein the at least two terminals are assigned at least two groups of subbands;
• and
• receiving pilot transmission from the at least two terminals on the at least two groups of subbands.

A method for transmitting a pilot signal on an uplink in a wireless communication system, comprising:

• receiving an assignment of a group of subbands to use for the pilot signal on the uplink, wherein the group includes a subset of a plurality of usable subbands suitable for use far data transmission;
• determining transmit power to use for each of the subbands in the group, wherein the transmit power for each subband is scaled higher than the average transmit power per subband that would be used if pilot transmission were done on all subbands, by a scaling factor that is greater than one;
• and
• transmitting the pilot signal on the subbands in the group at the determined transmit power.

A method for transmitting signaling information on an uplink in a wireless communication system, comprising:

• partitioning a plurality of usable subbands suitable for use for data transmission into a plurality of disjoint groups of subbands;
• assigning one group in the plurality of disjoint groups to each of at least two terminals, wherein the at least two terminals are assigned at least two groups of subbands;
• and
• receiving signaling transmission, within a same time interval, from the at least two terminals on the at least two groups of subbands.

An apparatus in a wireless communication system with a plurality of subbands, comprising:

• means for partitioning a plurality of usable subbands suitable for use for data transmission into at least two disjoint groups of subbands;
• means for assigning a first group in the at least two disjoint groups to a terminal;
• and
• means for receiving pilot transmission from the terminal on the subbands in the first group.