Patent ID: 8432863

Claim:
A method executed in a base station that interacts with terminals, comprising the steps of: determining range of signal path gains for said terminals, dividing said range into a plurality of gain non-overlapping intervals, each having a lower boundary signal path gain and an upper boundary signal path gain; assigning to each interval those of said terminals (group of terminals) that have a signal path gain between the lower and upper boundaries of said each interval; specifying an associated modulation level to the group of terminals that are assigned to each of the intervals, to be used by said terminals when transmitting to said base station, for each group of terminals, based on every set of K packets that are received from terminals in said each group, computing an associated group packet error rate, which is a collective packet error rate of said group of terminals as experienced at said base station; and specifying to the terminals in said group of terminals to modify their mode of operation in a direction that decreases throughput of data from said terminals, if the computed associated group packet error rate is above a specified group packet error rate.