Chirp waveform plays a significant role in radar and communication systems for its ability of pulse compression and spread spectrum. This paper presents a principle of orthogonally multiplexing a bank of linear chirp waveforms within the same bandwidth. The amplitude and phase of the chirps are modulated for information communication. As Fourier trans-form is the basis for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), Fresnel transform underlies the proposed orthogonal chirp division multiplexing (OCDM). Digital implementa-tion of the OCDM system using discrete Fresnel transform is proposed. Based on the con-volution theorem of the Fresnel transform, the transmission of the OCDM signal is analyzed under the linear time-invariant or quasi-static channel with additive noise, which can gener-alize typical linear transmission channels. Based on the eigen-decomposition of Fresnel transform, efficient digital signal processing algorithm is proposed for compensating chan-nel dispersion by linear single- tap equalizers. The implementation details of the OCDM system is discussed with emphasis on its compatibility to the OFDM system. Finally, simula-tion are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed OCDM under wireless channels. It is shown that the OCDM system is able to utilize the multipath diversity and outperforms the OFDM system under the multipath fading channels.