A system is provided for increasing the number of users capable of
communicating over a wireless network to permit multiple users to
transmit information simultaneously on the same channel or frequency in
which a Viterbi decoder-based signal separation system is used to pull
apart or uncorrupt the otherwise interfering signals on the channel. In
one embodiment, two users are assigned to the same channel, with a joint
parameter estimation pre-processor being utilized to provide an
estimation of the power, time and frequency offsets and phase of the
incoming signals. The joint parameters estimated by the parameter
estimation unit are applied to a signal separator which recovers and
pulls apart the two signals. The subject system is capable of
accommodating more than two simultaneously transmitted signals to provide
signal packing over existing channels without requiring new waveforms
through the utilization of stripping techniques and tail chopping
techniques so as to minimize the computational load involved in
separating the signals.