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Abstract

A transceiver and method for communicating over a communications channel having a plurality of subchannels are described. In particular, the transceiver is capable of dynamically switching between communicating data for a first active application set and communicating data for a second different active application set. An active application set is defined as the set of one or more active applications for which the transceiver is currently communicating data. As part of communicating data for the first active application set, the transceiver allocates the subchannels to the one or more applications in the first application set. The transmission requirements of the first active application set defines a first communication state of the transceiver. When the transceiver dynamically transitions to communicating data for the second different application set, the transceiver reallocates the subchannels to the one or more applications in the second different application set. The transmission requirements of the second different active application set defines a second communication state of the transceiver. In one embodiment the transceiver modifies the data rates of subchannels in the Bit Allocation Table according to the transmission requirements of the application whose data is being transmitted on the particular subchannel. In another embodiment, the transceiver is capable of dynamically switching from transmitting data for an Internet access application to transmitting data for a voice telephony application in addition to the Internet access application. In a further embodiment, the ABCD voice telephony signaling bits can be transmitted with either the data from the Internet access application or the data from the voice telephony application.

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First Claim