Patent ID: 9647786
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: H04J,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for identifying a plurality of modulation tiers for grouping network elements communicating over an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) channel having a plurality of subcarriers, the method comprising: defining a metric associated with a measurable characteristic of the network elements; collecting measurements associated with the measurable characteristic for a plurality of the network elements communicating over the OFDM channel, each measurement corresponding to at least one of the plurality of network elements and a respective one of the plurality of subcarriers, wherein the measurements collected for the plurality of network elements communicating over the OFDM channel includes: for each of the plurality of network elements, translating the measurements collected for the respective network element in to at least one network element metric value; dividing the OFDM channel into a plurality of modulation tiers each based on a range of the network element metric values determined from the measurements collected for the plurality of network elements, wherein each modulation tier is associated with a modulation level; for each of the plurality of network elements, comparing the respective at least one network element metric value to the range of metric values associated with each of the plurality of modulation tiers; and distributing each of the plurality of network elements to a modulation tier in the plurality of modulation tiers based on the comparison of the at least one network element metric value to the range of metric values associated with each of the plurality of modulation tiers.