Abstract: In a DOCSIS based satellite gateway data is transmitted over a single downstream channel, at different throughput rates. Data destined for each subscriber/receiver is assigned a throughput rate depending upon the downstream signal quality of that subscriber/receiver. To accomplish this, the downstream DOCSIS MAC data is parsed to extract DOCSIS packets. The DOCSIS packets are then loaded into packet queues based on an identifier within such packets such as the MAC destination address or SID. Each of the queues represents a bandwidth efficiency or throughput rate that can be currently tolerated by specific subscribers based on the current signal quality being experienced at the subscriber location. A PHY-MAP describing the downstream data structure to be transmitted and inserted into the downstream data. Data is extracted from the packet queues in queue blocks as defined by the PHY-MAP.