Patent ID: 7460465

Claim:
A method for reducing signaling overhead in a multicarrier system with dynamic bit allocation, the method comprising the steps of: establishing transmission characteristics of a transmission channel; establishing a bit allocation table based on the established transmission characteristics; comparing the established bit allocation table with bit allocation tables stored and indexed in a storage device; determining if the established bit allocation table corresponds to one of the stored bit allocation tables and, if so, transmitting only an index of the corresponding stored bit allocation table to implement a bit allocation table alignment during signaling; and determining if the established bit allocation table does not correspond to one of the stored bit allocation tables and, if not, performing the additional step of: verifying a number of bit allocation tables stored in the storage device and, if a maximum number of bit allocation tables stored in the storage device is exceeded, performing the additional steps of: determining a difference in respect of a subsequent stored bit allocation table; and transmitting both the difference and the index of the subsequent stored bit allocation table.