An embodiment of the present invention uses estimates of delay spreads of transmissions from user equipments (UEs) to a NodeB to determine a set of transmission parameters for the UEs reference signals. In an exemplary embodiment, the transmission parameters for reference signals include cyclic shifts. Thus, embodiments include a set of allocated cyclic shift values that are tailored to the delay spreads. The set of allocated cyclic shift values are used by a corresponding set of UE being served by a NodeB to form references signals. Each UE uses the allocated cyclic shift to form its reference signal by applying the cyclic shift to a modified reference sequence. The modified reference sequence can be generated from a Constant-Amplitude-Zero-Auto Correlation (CAZAC) sequence. The set of allocated cyclic shift values can be updated periodically to account for changes of delay spreads, which can be caused by physical movements of the set of UEs.