Fast frequency hopping with a code division multiplexed pilot in an OFDMA system

A method of receiving a wideband pilot in a wireless multi-carrier communication system, comprising:

• obtaining a sequence of received chips that includes a sequence of combined pilot and data chips transmitted by a transmitting entity, wherein the sequence of combined pilot and data chips is obtained by summing a sequence of pilot chips for the wideband pilot with a sequence of data chips at the transmitting entity;
• processing the sequence of received chips with a pseudo-random number (PN) code to obtain a sequence of chip-spaced gain values based upon a plurality of channel gain estimates for a plurality of propagation paths for the wideband pilot and to obtain the plurality of channel response estimates for the plurality of subbands based upon transformations of the sequence of chip-spaced gain values;
• and
• processing the sequence of received chips in accordance with a multi-carrier demodulation scheme and with the plurality of channel response estimates to obtain recovered data symbols for the transmitting entity.

An apparatus in a wireless multi-carrier communication system, comprising:

• means for obtaining a sequence of received chips that includes a sequence of combined pilot and data chips transmitted by a transmitting entity, wherein the sequence of combined pilot and data chips is obtained by summing a sequence of pilot chips for a wideband pilot with a sequence of data chips at the transmitting entity;
• means for processing the sequence of received chips with a pseudo-random number (PN) code to obtain a sequence of chip-spaced gain values based upon a, plurality of channel gain estimates for a plurality of propagation paths for the wideband pilot and to obtain the plurality of channel response estimates for the plurality of subbands based upon transformations of the sequence of chip-spaced gain values;
• and
• means for processing the sequence of received chips in accordance with a multi-carrier demodulation scheme and with the plurality of channel response estimates to obtain recovered data symbols for the transmitting entity.