The bits allocation per subcarrier. An array of 256 octets (512 nibbles) designed for supporting up to 512 (downstream)

subcarriers. When more than 512 subcarriers are supported, the status information is reported through multiple (up to 8) segments. The first segment is then used for the first 512 subcarriers. The second segment is used for the subcarriers 512 to 1023 and so on. The aggregate number of utilized nibbles in the downstream direction (in all segments) depends on NSds; in the upstream direction, it depends on NSus. This value is referred to here as NS. The segment number is in xdsl2SCStatusSegment. Nibble i (0 <= i < MIN((NS+1)-(segment-1)*512,512)) in each segment is set to a value in the range 0 to 15 to indicate that the respective downstream or upstream subcarrier j (j=(segement-1)*512+i) has the same amount of bits allocation.