System and method for scrambling the phase of the carriers in a multicarrier communications system

A transceiver, including a transmitter and receiver, operable to use a transmission signal having a plurality of carrier signals, the transceiver comprising:

• a phase scrambler operable to scramble the plurality of carrier signals to reduce a Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAR) of a multicarrier signal when one or more data bits are transmitted on a first carrier signal of the multicarrier signal, and the same one or more data bits are transmitted on a second carrier signal of the multicarrier signal;
• a QAM encoder operable to determine a phase characteristic of a QAM symbol for the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal, wherein the phase characteristic depends on the one or more data bits;
• a pseudo-random number generator using a seed value to determine a first value for the first carrier signal, wherein the first value is determined independently of the one or more data bits;
• the phase scrambler operable to modify the phase characteristic of the QAM symbol of the first carrier signal at least based on the first value to scramble the plurality of carrier signals to reduce the PAR of the multicarrier signal;
• the pseudo-random number generator using the seed value to determine a second value for the second carrier signal, wherein the second value is determined independently of the one or more data bits and wherein the first and second values are different;
• the phase scrambler operable to modify the phase characteristic of the QAM symbol of the second carrier signal at least based on the second value to scramble the plurality of carrier signals to reduce the PAR of the multicarrier signal;
• a modulator operable to modulate onto the first carrier signal the QAM symbol, the phase characteristic of the QAM symbol of the first carries having been modified based at least on the first value;
• and
• the modulator operable to modulate onto the second carrier signal the QAM symbol, the phase characteristic of the QAM symbol onto the second carrier having been modified based at least on the second value, wherein the seed value was communicated prior to scrambling the plurality of carrier signals.