Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A communication device, otherwise known as a user equipment (UE) or a base station may select a sequence from a set of sequences for conveying a payload including a set of bits. A length of the selected sequence may be based on a number of time periods for conveying the payload and a number of frequency tones for conveying the payload. The communication device may apply an interleaving function to the selected sequence to generate an interleaved sequence, and transmit the payload including the set of bits using the interleaved sequence. Likewise, the communication device may receive the payload including the set of bits using an interleaved sequence, and apply an interleaving function to de-interleave the interleaved sequence to generate a selected sequence. The communication device may thereby decode the payload based on the selected sequence.