US Patent 7778346 Upstream power cutback

An upstream signal power in a communication system is optimized. At least one system parameter is determined and a bits and gains table is modified. For example, a maximum received power parameter for the transmitting device is used by the receiving device to calculate a power backoff parameter. The power backoff parameter is used to calculate the bits and gains table which is then used by the transmitting device. The new SNR may be estimated. This estimation may distinguish between noise sources that vary with the signal level received and those that do not.