Carrier grouping in multi-carrier systems

A method for grouping a plurality of carriers in a DMT communication system, comprising:

• grouping the plurality of carriers used for communication in the DMT communication system into a plurality of dynamically variable size carrier groups;
• determining a plurality of carriergroup parameters for each of the plurality of dynamically variable sized carrier groups, the plurality of carriergroup parameters including a carriergroup signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) parameter being a worst case SNR parameter relating to the plurality of carriers within the dynamically variable size carrier group and carriergroup bitloading and gain parameters based upon the carriergroup SNR parameter for the dynamically variable size carrier group;
• using the plurality of carriergroup parameters to dynamically set up a tone encoder;
• and
• sending at least one message using the tone encoder, the at least one message including the plurality of carriergroup parameters.

A method for grouping a plurality of carriers in a DMT communication system, the DMT communication system including a near end and a far end modem, comprising:

• determining at least one dynamically variable sized carrier group from the plurality of carriers used for communication in the DMT communication system;
• determining a worst case carriergroup signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the plurality of carriers within the at least one dynamically variable sized carrier group;
• determining a carriergroup bitloading and a carriergroup gain for the plurality of carriers within the at least one dynamically variable sized carrier group based on the worst case carriergroup SNR;
• using the carriergroup bitloading and the carriergroup gain to dynamically set up a tone encoder in the far end modem;
• and
• using the carriergroup bitloading and the carriergroup gain to transmit messages from the far end modem to the near end modem using the tone encoder.