APPLICATION OF ASYNCHRONOUS CODED MULTIPLE ACCESS IN A SYSTEM EMPLOYING ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

A User Equipment and method for transmitting a random-access radio frequency (RF) signal by applying Asynchronous Coded Multiple Access (ACMA) in a communication system employing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is described. The method including: encoding an information stream as OFDM symbols using a low rate Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding suitable for Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) to form a payload; generating a burst, including symbols, by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform on a unique word (UW) multiplexed with the payload; and synchronizing a transmission of each of the symbols of the burst with consecutive symbol-start instants. The UW includes a plurality of Zadoff-Chu (ZC) like sequences disposed in a subset of consecutive symbol-start instants of the burst. A receiver detects burst arrival by searching for consecutive ZC-like sequences. Channel state estimation can be performed by using the UW with additional ZC-like sequences in the burst.