Method and apparatus for establishing communication in a multi-tone data transmission system

In a bi-directional data transmission system that facilitates communications between a plurality of remote units and a central unit using a symbol-based discrete multitone transmission scheme that has a multiplicity of discrete sub-channels provided for facilitating upstream communications between the plurality of remote units and the central unit, a method of informing the central unit of the transmission requirements of a remote unit, the method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting, using a fast access transmission mode, a communication access request from a selected first remote unit to the central unit, the communication access request comprising a unique remote unit identifier identifying the selected first remote unit and being transmitted from the selected first remote unit on at least one unused sub-channel using a modulation scheme that does not require equalization to decode at the central unit;
• and
• allocating at least one sub-channel to the selected first remote unit in response to the communication access request for facilitating upstream communications between the selected first remote unit and the central unit.