System and method for increasing maximum payload size

1. A method for increasing, at a transmitter, a payload size of a communication channel having orthogonal groups, the method comprising:

referencing, at the transmitter, a base orthogonal sequence set comprising orthogonal sequences that are mutually orthogonal, the orthogonal sequence set having subsets that are sub-block orthogonal with a length of four; and

selecting, at the transmitter, a spreading sequence set from a plurality of spreading sequence sets, each of the plurality of spreading sequence sets comprising an orthogonal sequence set subset combined with an imaginary orthogonal sequence set subset,

wherein the selecting increases payload size;

wherein the base orthogonal sequence set includes twelve orthogonal sequences and three subsets; and

wherein the plurality of spreading sequence sets comprises two spreading sequence sets for an increase of one bit of payload, four spreading sequence sets for an increase of two bits of payload, and eight spreading sequence sets for an increase of three bits of payload.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection of the spreading sequence set from the plurality of spreading sequence sets is mapped to a predefined bit sequence.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein selection of candidate spreading sequence sets from the plurality of spreading sequence sets maximizes differences between spreading sequence sets.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using up to twelve spreading sequences for each spreading sequence set for transmission.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising using a higher order modulation than binary phase shift keying for transmission.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using a higher order modulation than binary phase shift keying for transmission.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication channel is a physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel.

8. A method for increasing, at a transmitter, payload size of a communication channel having orthogonal groups, the method comprising:

referencing, at the transmitter, a base orthogonal sequence set comprising twelve orthogonal sequences that are mutually orthogonal, the orthogonal sequence set having three subsets that are sub-block orthogonal with a length of four;

selecting, at the transmitter, a spreading sequence based on an orthogonal sequence set subset combined with an imaginary orthogonal sequence set subset; and

utilizing, at the transmitter, at least one extra orthogonal sequence to increase payload size;

wherein the spreading sequence is selected from a plurality of spreading sequence sets and the plurality of spreading sequence sets comprises two spreading sequence sets for an increase of one bit of payload, four spreading sequence sets for an increase of two bits of payload, and eight spreading sequence sets for an increase of three bits of payload.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising using a higher order modulation than binary phase shift keying for transmission.

10. A method at a receiver for detecting increased payload size of a communication channel having orthogonal groups, the method comprising:

receiving a signal at the receiver;

referencing, at the receiver, a base orthogonal sequence set comprising orthogonal sequences that are mutually orthogonal, the orthogonal sequence set having subsets that are sub-block orthogonal with a length of four;

determining, at the receiver, which of a spreading sequence set from a plurality of spreading sequence sets was used for encoding the signal, the plurality of spreading sequence sets comprising an orthogonal sequence set subset combined with an imaginary orthogonal sequence set subset; and

adding, at the receiver, extra bits to the signal based on the determining:

wherein the base orthogonal sequence set includes twelve orthogonal sequences and three subsets; and

wherein the plurality of spreading sequence sets comprises two spreading sequence sets for an increase of one bit of payload, four spreading sequence sets for an increase of two bits of payload, and eight spreading sequence sets for an increase of three bits of payload.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the number of extra bits possible is signaled to the receiver prior to the receiving.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining is based on mapping to a predefined bit sequence.

13. The method of claim 10 , further detecting use of extra spreading sequences for transmission.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising detecting use of a higher order modulation than binary phase shift keying for transmission.