Patent ID: 8532025

Claim:
A method for transmitting burst allocation information for N mobile stations in a wireless communications system, comprising: partitioning the mobile stations into a plurality of mobile station groups, based on reported signal quality values, wherein the reported signal quality values comprise Carrier to Interface Noise Ratio (CINR) values, wherein partitioning the mobile stations into the mobile station groups comprises ranking the mobile stations in order of their CINR value, and wherein partitioning the mobile stations into the mobile station groups further comprises: selecting multiple combinations of sizes for the mobile station groups; evaluating each combination of sizes by calculating a resource metric indicative of total resources used to transmit burst allocation information for each mobile station group based on the combination of sizes under evaluation; and selecting a combination of sizes for the mobile station groups based on the evaluations; associating a MAP message with each mobile station group; selecting a different modulation coding scheme for each mobile station group; and transmitting burst allocation information for each mobile station group in its associated MAP message transmitted using the selected modulation coding scheme.