Abstract: A method and system (102) provide adaptive modulation/coding with distribution of excess resources based on one or more system criteria. The system (102) may be any system with more than one modulation rate or more than one coding rate and may be a wireless communication system using CDMA, TDMA, OFDM or any other signal formats. Generally, the method determines excess resources of the system based on desired characteristics of links supported by the system. The excess resources may be any number of system resources, such as transmit power. These excess resources are then distributed to the links based on various system criteria, such as to increase system coverage, to increase system capacity, to modify a data rate profile of the system or to reduce interference in the system. Methods for providing such distribution of the excess resources are also provided for equal data rate systems.

Abstract: In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, excess power is distributed to certain streams in order to increase the stream's signal quality, and thus, its encoding rate. Although certain streams will have their overall power, and thus their signal quality reduced, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention the reduction in signal quality is limited so that the encoding rate for these streams remains unchanged.

Abstract: In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, excess power is distributed to certain streams in order to increase the stream's signal quality, and thus, its encoding rate. Although certain streams will have their overall power, and thus their signal quality reduced, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention the reduction in signal quality is limited so that the encoding rate for these streams remains unchanged.

Abstract: A method and system (102) for providing criterion based adaptive power allocation with selective determination of modulation and coding is provided. A method is presented which consists of providing adaptive power allocation with a target signal quality for each link based on a system criterion, and a modulation/coding rate for each link based on a signal quality associated with the transmit power of each link. A further method is provided which may alternatively, or additionally, consist of APA in which the transmit power for each link is assigned in an attempt to obtain a signal quality for each link within a range between or equal to a minimum and maximum. An additional method is disclosed consisting of APA in which the transmit power for each link is assigned in an attempt to obtain a signal quality for each link as close as possible to a common signal quality, when the power allocation method has a limited dynamic range.