an illustrative timeslot for reverse - link transmission by a user is shown in fig1 . except as described below , the timeslot is structured in frequency and time as an ofdma timeslot as described , for example , by pertinent standards . as shown in the figure , the total duration of the timeslot is divided into several distinct fields , which are sequential in time . field 10 is dedicated to control signaling , fields 20 and 40 are for pilot signals , field 30 is for transmitting data in ofdma format , and field 50 is for transmitting data in mc - cdma format . the partition of the pertinent portion of the timeslot between ofdma field 30 and mc - cdma field 50 is flexible . that is , the relative durations of these fields can be changed . the partition may be set , for example , by the base station , depending on the kind of service that is being requested , cell size , and possibly other factors . services may include , among others , high rate streaming , voip ( voice over ip ), and gaming . because the user chooses the data format once per service flow , it is possible to transmit within a given timeslot both in field 30 and in field 50 . for transmission in ofdma field 30 , at least some of the ofdm subcarriers are grouped into distinct , orthogonal subchannels . without the use of spreading codes , each such subchannel may be occupied by at most one user . with the use of spreading codes , each such subchannel may be occupied by more than one user , provided that all such users employ mutually orthogonal codes . in at least some cases , it will be advantageous for transmissions in ofdma field 30 to employ frequency hopping in order to reduce out - of - cell interference through averaging effects . in at least some cases , it will be advantageous to depart from conventional subchannels , which have equal widths , by providing subchannels of varying widths . this is particularly true for cells with users distributed at various distances from the base station . users situated relatively near the base station can be received with higher power than those near the cell edge because they cause less interference to other cells . thus , because the bandwidth that can be occupied efficiently tends to increase as transmission power increases , the users closest to the base station can generally be permitted to occupy a larger bandwidth than the users at the cell edge . for example , a set of 200 subcarriers may be grouped into ten distinct subchannels of the following widths , as measured by the respective number of component subcarriers : 64 , 32 , 32 , 16 , 16 , 16 , 8 , 8 , 4 , 4 . typically , the partition of the set of subcarriers into subchannels will be semi - static . it might be reconfigured , for example , on a seasonal basis or as dictated by physical changes to the network . one advantage of such a scheme for varying the widths of subchannels is that it reduces signaling overhead . that is , the network can respond to a user request for more than one conventional subchannel by simply allocating one relatively wide subchannel , without the need to negotiate multiple channel assignments . as a consequence , overhead is reduced both in subchannel requests and in subchannel grants . transmission in mc - cdma field 50 takes place on at least some of the subcarriers . however , the pertinent subcarriers are not grouped into separate subchannels for the purpose of such transmission . instead , all users transmit on all such subchannels , but each user modulates its transmission onto one or more individually assigned spreading codes . mc - cdma transmission is especially advantageous for users near the cell edge , because users at the cell edge can typically only signal at low spectral efficiency values for which the benefit of orthogonalizing the users is small . as a consequence , the additional overhead of signaling a request for a subchannel and a grant of a subchannel is not warranted . each currently active user transmits an mc - cdma pilot signal in each slot , regardless of whether data is being transmitted in that slot . a user is “ active ” if it is in an active mac ( medium access control ) protocol state . the pilot signals are used on a slot - by - slot basis for transmission power control of the users . preferably , fast power control is used . each pilot signal is transmitted as a sequence distributed over both field 20 and field 40 . separation of the pilot sequence into two fields ( i . e ., fields 20 and 40 ) is helpful because interpolating the channel estimates between the two fields helps to eliminate undesired doppler - related error . because the pilot signals are in mc - cdma format , there is no need for the network to allocate specific subcarriers for pilot transmission . this is advantageous because it facilitates fast power control , which is important for determining data rates and also for beam forming when multiple antennas are available at the base station . additional pilot tones may be defined in each subchannel for estimation of the signal - to - interference ratio ( sir ). each user autonomously sets its transmit power and transmit rate , using information provided by the base station in the form of pilot power control ( preferably fast power control ) and the traffic - to - pilot ratio ( t2p ). power control and t2p algorithms useful in this regard are similar to the corresponding algorithms described , for example , in pertinent cdma standards . according to an exemplary procedure for distributed allocation of ofdma subchannels , the base station sends an indication , e . g . by broadcasting a single bit for each subchannel , of whether or not each subchannel is currently occupied . each user monitors this broadcast before selecting a subchannel to be requested or on which to make a transmission . the user chooses a subchannel , at least in part , according to available power . roughly speaking , with higher power , a wider subchannel can be used while maintaining a given received power spectral density . additionally , the user may choose the subchannel , in part , according to a priority ordering that the user has imposed on the subchannels . for example , users experiencing favorable radiofrequency propagation conditions may choose an ordering that places the wider subchannels first . in at least some cases , it will be advantageous for users experiencing similar propagation conditions to choose different subchannels from among a group of subchannels of similar widths . such an approach will tend to maximize orthogonality among such users . a number k is predetermined . if the last k indicator signals from the base station indicate that a given subchannel is empty , the user may begin transmitting on that subchannel . if no empty subchannel is available , the user may bid for an appropriate subchannel . bidding takes place on a special channel provided for that purpose , referred to as the “ contention channel .” an exemplary bidding procedure is described below . the base station broadcasts the mac - id of each user that has won a bid . as noted , each user autonomously determines its transmit rate on its selected subchannel . the rate determination is based on an estimate of the sinr ( signal to interference and noise ratio ) over that subchannel . the sinr is estimated , e . g ., from the pilot sir , the t2p , and a t2p multiplier . each subchannel may have an individually assigned t2p multiplier . the t2p multiplier makes it possible to adjust transmission power according to the width of the subchannel . according to our communication method in one embodiment , the user obtains the necessary resources for data transmission by executing a sequence of steps that include those listed below , which we refer to as the distributed resource allocation ( dra ) procedure for users . in at least some networks , the dra procedure could be executed once per slot for each service flow . thus , given the timeslot structure of fig1 , the dra procedure could be executed twice per timeslot , and thus could make it possible for data to be transmitted in both the ofdma field and the mc - cdma field of at least some timeslots . the orthogonality properties of ofdma subchannels confer certain benefits for system performance which are most evident for high smir and high bit rate . for low bit rate , on the other hand , cdma is generally more advantageous because it is more flexible and robust , and tends to perform approximately as well as ofdma . therefore , we have designed the dra procedure to favor ofdma transmission when the user can achieve high spectral efficiency . as a counterpart to the dra procedure for users , the base station executes a sequence of steps including those that we refer to as the dra procedure for base station . those steps are also listed below . ( 1 ) update the pilot power . for the ofdma and mc - cdma data fields , update the t2p bucket level . ( 2 ) estimate the required transmission rate tr req . this estimate is based on the current backlog of packets queued for the user , urgency of the queued traffic , and the value of a parameter referred to here as the “ transmission threshold ( t tx )” “ urgency ” may be measured , for example , by how long a packet has been waiting in the queu relative to a target latency value . the transmission threshold is , in effect , a weight which is used for avoiding excessive contention for resources . the transmission threshold may be a function of queue length , or of any other property or combination of properties related to traffic statistics such as traffic demand for an individual user . the transmission threshold is further discussed below . ( 3 ) determine a txt2p ( i . e ., a transmission t2p ) and a corresponding effective transmission rate ( tr eff ) for the mc - cdma field of the timeslot . if tr eff & gt ; tr req , transmit in the mc - cdma field . otherwise , go to the next step . the txt2p is based on the t2p bucket level and on the available transmit power . the effective transmission rate is the rate at which data is being effectively transmitted using the mc - cdma field only . ( 4 ) if the network provides subchannels having different widths , determine the range of subchannel widths in which to make the current transmission . this determination is based on the t2p bucket level , the available transmit power , and the required transmission rate . each user may have an individual priority ordering of subchannels , arranged to avoid collisions when two users request a subchannel of the same width at the same time . priority orderings may also extend across subchannel widths . for example , a user experiencing favorable radio propagation conditions might prefer a wider subchannel over a narrower subchannel . ( 5 ) if the signal from the base station indicates that an appropriate subchannel has been empty for the last k slots , grab that subchannel and transmit on it . otherwise , go to the next step . if several subchannels are empty , grab a subchannel in accordance with the priority ordering described above . ( 6 ) if the transmission threshold exceeds the advertised transmission threshold , then on the reverse link contention channel , transmit the transmission threshold and the required subchannel width to the base station . otherwise , do not transmit . the advertised transmission threshold ( t txa ) is broadcast by the base station . in our example , the advertised transmission threshold is the most recent transmission threshold , reported by a user , that resulted in assignment of a subchannel to that user . by conditioning the user &# 39 ; s transmission in this step on t tx & gt ; t txa , we reduce the amount of contention on the contention channel , and we regulate requests for resources . in some cases , t txa may occasionally be too high , and subchannel requests will consequently be suppressed . in that event , the base station may reduce t txa in stages by taking successive submultiples of it until an appropriate rate of channel requests is resumed . one way for the base station to indicate that a given subchannel is empty is to set t txa for that subchannel to zero . ( 7 ) after transmitting on the contention channel , wait for the base station to provide a grant of a subchannel , and then transmit on the granted subchannel . if the user is currently transmitting on a subchannel and needs to continue , it sends the new transmission threshold and request to the base station without contention . we refer to such an operation as “ piggyback of future requests .” ( 8 ) update the transmission threshold , the transmit pilot power , the t2p bucket levels , the urgency , and other pertinent variables periodically , as necessary in view of new packet arrivals , transmitted rate , and received reverse activity ( rab ) bits . ( 1 ) demodulate the signals received on the contention channel , and from them determine the various subchannel widths that have been requested , and determine the various transmission thresholds . ( 2 ) assign subchannels to the requesting users , beginning with the highest transmission thresholds that occur in the queue of requests and proceeding in decreasing order of the transmission thresholds . in any case in which the requested subchannel is not available to fill a request , assign a subchannel with less than the requested width . ( 3 ) broadcast the mac - id of the user that succeeded in getting a subchannel assignment . stagger the subchannel assignments , such that the assignment and the broadcast take place , e . g ., once per timeslot . typically , once a subchannel has been assigned , the assignment will persist for a certain number of subframes , each spanning several timeslots . ( 4 ) in a broadcast , reflect back the most recent transmission threshold reported to the base station that caused a subchannel to be assigned . this step may be performed , for example , once per timeslot . table 1 , below , provides a partial listing of the overhead signals required to implement the dra procedures for the user and the base station , in an exemplary embodiment .