Patent ID: 7852952

Claim:
A method of assigning bits for a plurality of lines in a vectored Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) system using Discrete MultiTone (DMT) modulation, the method comprising: performing a first iteration comprising the steps: [1] determining a new user line ordering position for each of a plurality of tones in the vectored DSL system, wherein the determined new user line ordering position defines the order in which each of the plurality of lines in the vectored DSL system are decoded or precoded, and wherein the first iteration further comprises one or both of the steps: [2] determining a power spectral density for a signal transmitted on each of the plurality of lines, and [3] determining a bit allocation for the signal transmitted on each of the plurality of lines, when the determined new user line ordering position is different than an existing user line order; performing an order-swapping operation on the determined new user line ordering positions, including: re-assigning a first user's line to a first initial line position associated with a second user's line, re-assigning the second user's line to a second initial line position associated with the first user's line, moving the first user's line to the re-assigned first initial line position, and moving the second user's line to the re-assigned second initial line position; and performing one or more subsequent iterations, wherein each subsequent iteration comprises performing two or more of steps 1 through 3.