Patent ID: 7310301

Claim:
A method of allocating source information to subchannels in a transmitter which employs multi-carrier modulation, said method comprising: obtaining channel state information for a communication channel that includes a plurality of subchannels, said channel state information indicating deviation in channel-gain-to-noise ratio (CGNR) throughout said communication channel; grouping said subchannels into a number F of quality-of-signal (QoS) regions in response to said channel state information and a cost relationship between transmission rate and transmission power, wherein said number F is greater than or equal to two; partitioning said source information into said number F of source-information segments to correspond to said F quality-of-signal regions; and for each of said F source-information segments, modulating said source information partitioned in said segment into said subchannels for one of said QoS regions.