US Patent 7821938 Adaptive coding and modulation for synchronous connections

A method for communication includes accepting input data from two or more data sources, one or more of which include continuous synchronous tributaries, for transmission over a wireless communication link having a variable data rate. Relative priorities are assigned to the respective data sources. A currently-available data rate of the communication link is determined. The input data accepted from the data sources is multiplexed to produce a composite data stream. The input data of at least one of the tributaries is selectively omitted from the composite data stream based on the respective relative priorities, in order to match the data rate of the composite data stream to the currently-available data rate of the communication link. The composite data stream is transmitted over the communication link.