ACCESS CHANNEL SLOT SHARING

摘要

The present invention is a system and method for increasing user capacity on a slotted random access channel in a spread spectrum communications system (10 0) by using a multi-part access probe (502). First and second parts (508, 510) of an access probe preamble (604) are modulated using a short PN code sequence (620), and the second part and remainder of the access probe (502) is modulated using a long PN code sequence. Information to be transmitted by th e access probe (502) is modulated on the second part (606) of the access probe (502), and the access probe is transmitted so that the first part (508) of t he probe preamble (604) falls within the boundaries of an access channel slot (402). In one embodiment, time slots (402) in access channels (400) used for access signal reception are made the length of the first part (508). In a further embodiment, time slots (402) in a plurality of adjacent access channels used for access signal reception may be longer than said first part (508) but are offset in time from each other by the length or period of the first part.