Patent ID: 7193506

Claim:
A method for transferring data on power line communications (“PLC”) signals over a PLC system, wherein the PLC system operates in accordance with a PLC signal frame structure including a payload portion and wherein the payload portion has a predetermined, fixed length and includes at least one payload symbol, the method comprising: obtaining channel quality data for a PLC system signal path extending between a source PLC transceiver and a destination PLC transceiver; computing, based on at least one of the channel quality data and node configuration data, a payload symbol length; generating a payload portion including at least one payload symbol of the computed length, wherein the length or sum of the lengths of the at least one payload symbol contained in the generated payload portion equals the predetermined length of the payload portion; and modifying processing operations at the source PLC transceiver for generating PLC carriers in accordance with the PLC signal frame structure including the at least one payload symbol having the computed payload length.