Patent ID: 6956906

Claim:
A method for data communication over a powerline network, wherein a transmission channel is divided into a plurality of subchannels each having a partial power as its part of a predetermined total transmission power and a partial rate as its data rate, wherein initially a partial power is fixed and a signal to noise ratio is obtained for each subchannel and the subchannels are then processed one after the each other with the following steps: (a) calculating the partial rate of the present subchannel in accordance with its signal to noise ratio so as to result in a predetermined transmission error rate, (b) quantising said calculated partial rate, and (c) adapting the partial power of the present subchannel to a change of the partial rate due to said quantistion, so that said predetermined transmission error rate of the present subchannel is maintained; determining the partial power of another subchannel anew based on the adapted partial power of the present subchannel so that the said predetermined total transmission power of all subchannels is maintained; and obtaining a signal to noise ratio of said other subchannel in adaptation to its newly determined partial power.