Method and apparatus for transmitting data in a communication system

An apparatus for use in a communication system, the communication system comprising a transmitter and a plurality of receiver devices, each receiver of the plurality of receiver devices being connected to the transmitter via a respective communication channel, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors configured to:
• i) precode the data for transmission on the respective communication channels, thereby to provide first precoded data;
• ii) using the first precoded data, for each of the respective communication channels, compute a number of bits to be allocated to that channel;
• iii) determine that the bit allocation does not satisfy one or more predetermined criteria;
• iv) rank the respective communication channels in an order based on one or more channel properties;
• v) discard for use as a direct channel, one or more of the respective communication channels based on the ranking;
• vi) precode the data for transmission on the respective communication channels such that the one or more discarded channels are not used as a direct channel, thereby to provide second precoded data;
• and
• vii) cause the transmitter to transmit the second precoded data on the respective communication channels.