Adaptive bit/power loading technique for a multicarrier communication system

A bit/power loading method in an adaptive modulation-based multicarrier communication system computes ratios of modulation mode values to transmission power values sub-channel-by-sub-channel, selects a combination of sub-channels in which a sum of the ratios is maximized for a total number of bits to be simultaneously transmitted, and transmits signals in modulation modes corresponding to ratios of modulation mode values to transmission power values associated with the selected sub-channels. Because the bit/power loading method selects a combination of sub-channel modulation modes with the minimum total transmission power for a given number of bits on the basis of transmission power in each sub-channel modulation mode, the bits can be transmitted at the minimum transmission power in a given environment.