Patent ID: 8867561

Claim:
A method, comprising: transmitting, by a computing device, a schedule identifying: a plurality of different times at which a modem is to transmit a pilot signal, and identifying for each time, a corresponding tone of a plurality of different tones on which the pilot signal is to be transmitted, and representative tones that skip intervening tones in-between the representative tones on which the modem is to transmit the pilot signal; receiving, by the computing device, the plurality of pilot signals from the modem on the plurality of different tones; measuring, by the computing device, the modem's effective modulation rate on each tone of the plurality of different tones based on the plurality of pilot signals; storing, by the computing device, a modulation rate map identifying the modem's measured effective modulation rates for each of the plurality of different tones; and examining, by the computing device, a first pilot signal of the plurality of pilot signals to determine whether the first pilot signal comprises an embedded tone allocation request and examining the measured effective modulation rates of the plurality of different tones stored in the modulation rate map to allocate at least one tone of the plurality of different tones to the modem.