An apparatus and system to compensate for phase noise in a 5G or 6G DFT-S-OFDM signal are described. An access port (AP)-specific orthogonal cover code (OCC) is applied to phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) symbols in each of a plurality of PTRS groups. The PTRS group are inserted between data symbols to form a data vector prior to perform transform precoding on the data vector and transmission to a UE. The UE extracts the PTRS symbols from different PTRS APs using the OCC specific to each AP. After extraction, the phase noise for each PTRS group is estimated and used to compensate the data symbols associated with the PTRS group.