Method and apparatus for multiple access over a communication channel

In a system for providing multiple access over a single communication channel, a receiver comprising:

• an analog to digital converter to provide a digital signal comprising a plurality of signal components, the signal components being transmitted by a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter using a first spreading code to produce its signal component, the same first spreading code being used by each of the transmitters;
• a data bus, the digital signal being fed to the data bus;
• a control bus;
• a preamble detection component coupled to the control bus, the digital signal further being fed to the preamble detection component, the preamble detection component configured to detect a preamble in each of the received signal components using a first spreading code;
• plural demodulation circuits, each coupled to the data bus and to the control bus, each demodulation circuit configured to produce a data stream from data received over the data bus;
• a selection component operatively coupled to the preamble detection component and coupled to the control bus, the selection component configured to select an available demodulation circuit;
• and
• plural additional preamble detection components, each additional preamble detection component configured to detect preambles using a spreading code different from the spreading code of the other preamble detection components, each coupled to receive the data signal, each coupled to the data bus, each coupled to the selection component,
• wherein one of the demodulation circuits operates on data in response to control signals issued by the preamble detection component and by the selection component, so that multiple data bursts received by the preamble detection component can be concurrently processed by selected ones of the demodulation circuits.

In a system for providing multiple access over a single communication channel, a receiver comprising:

• means for producing a digital signal representing a received data burst, the digital signal comprising a plurality of received signal components having been transmitted from a plurality of different transmitters, each transmitter using a first spreading code that is the same among the transmitters;
• a data bus, the digital signals being fed to the data bus;
• a control bus;
• a preamble detection component coupled to the control bus, the digital signal further being fed to the preamble detection component, the preamble detection component configured to detect preambles using the first spreading code;
• plural demodulation circuits, each coupled to the data bus and to the control bus, each configured to produce a data stream from data received over the data bus;
• a selection component operatively coupled to the preamble detection component and coupled to the control bus, the selection component configured to select an available demodulation circuit;
• and
• plural additional preamble detection components, each additional preamble detection component configured to detect preambles using a spreading code different from the spreading code of the other preamble detection components, each coupled to receive the data signal, each coupled to the data bus, each coupled to the selection component,
• wherein one of the demodulation circuits operates on data in response to control signals issued by the preamble detection component and by the selection component, so that multiple data bursts received by the preamble detection component can be concurrently processed by selected ones of the demodulation circuits.