Patent ID: 6873652

Claim:
An apparatus for establishing a communication link, comprising: a negotiation data transmitter, associated with an initiating communication device, that transmits at least one carrier including first negotiation information bits representing a first list of xDSL modulation transmission protocol capabilities to a responding communication device; a negotiation data receiver, associated with the initiating communication device, that receives at least one carrier including second negotiation information bits representing a second list of xDSL modulation transmission protocol capabilities of the responding communication device, in response to said transmitted at least one carrier; and a selector that selects an xDSL modulation transmission protocol common to said first list of xDSL modulation transmission protocol capabilities and the second list of xDSL modulation transmission protocol capabilities in accordance with the responding communication device to establish a communication channel, wherein said transmitted at least one carrier contains data related to a useable frequency spectrum carrier allocation, said transmission of said first negotiation information bits and said reception of said second negotiation information bits occurring prior to an initialization procedure to establish the communication link.