A multi-carrier communications system with a programmable interleaver and
de-interleaver that can change the interleaving rate for data transmitted
and received in the communications system is presented. The programmable
interleaver and de-interleaver permits a level of flexibility in
determining the immunity of the communications system to errors and
sources of interference. The multi-carrier communications system is able
to vary the interleaving rate based on input from a user or from data
that it maintains from actual network performance. The multi-carrier
communications system can change the interleaving rate during the initial
installation of the multi-carrier communications system or whenever the
system is reset or restarted or on any individual transmission unit.