Patent ID: 8693440

Claim:
A communication apparatus for allocating packets to a plurality of carrier waves via which the packets are transmitted to another communication apparatus, the communication apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receive, from the another communication apparatus, first line-quality information including a current line-quality value for each of the plurality of carrier waves; a calculator configured to calculate, for each of the plurality of carrier waves, a tolerance parameter indicating a tolerable margin of the current line-quality value for causing a change of a modulation method that is to be used for each of the plurality of carrier waves, based on the received current line-quality value; an allocator configured to allocate the packets staying in the allocator to the plurality of carrier waves, based on a service-quality level assigned to each of the packets and the tolerance parameter calculated for each of the plurality of carrier waves, such that a first packet having the service-quality level equal to or higher than a second packet is allocated, on a priority basis, to a first carrier wave having the tolerance parameter equal to or larger than a second carrier wave to which the second packet is allocated; and a compositor configured to combine, for each of the plurality of carrier waves, two types of tolerance parameters into a combined tolerance parameter, wherein the first line-quality information includes, as a current line-quality value, a current C/N (Carrier to Noise ratio) value and a current receiving level, for each of the plurality of carrier waves, a C/N-tolerance parameter indicating a tolerable margin of the current C/N value for causing a change of a modulation method that is to be used for each of the plurality of carrier waves, a level-tolerance parameter indicating a tolerable margin of the current receiving level for causing a change of a modulation method that is to be used for each of the plurality of carrier waves, the calculator calculates, for each of the plurality of carrier waves, the C/N-tolerance parameter and the level-tolerance parameter, the compositor combines, for each of the plurality of carrier waves, the calculated C/N-tolerance parameter and the calculated level-tolerance parameter into the combined-tolerance parameter, and the allocator allocates the packets staying in the allocator to the plurality of carrier waves, based on a service-quality level assigned to each of the packets and the combined tolerance parameter calculated for each of the plurality of carrier waves, such that the first packet having the service-quality level equal to or higher than the second packet is allocated, on a priority basis, to a third carrier wave having the combined tolerance parameter equal to or larger than a fourth carrier wave to which the second packet is allocated.