A method of determining an acquisition indicator bit AI s , at a receiver in a communication system which includes receiving multiplexed acquisition indicator bits y = B x AI + n, where B is the signature matrix known at both base station and UE, AI is all the acquisition indicator bits and n represents noise. Next, an estimated value of the acquisition indicator bit AÎ MMSE (s) as a function of formula (I) is calculated, where B T (s,.) is the s-th row vector of the transposed matrix B T for acquisition indicator bit AI s ,. Finally, the acquisition indicator bit AI S is set as follows: AI s. =-1, if AÎ MMSE (s) S =0, if R = AÎ, MMSE SE (s) s =1, if AÎ MMSE (s) = U, where R and U are decision thresholds.