Disclosed is an air interface protocol architecture for a multi-carrier wireless communications network having a plurality of carriers. The protocol architecture comprises a common layer 2/3 protocol for each of the carriers. The common layer 2/3 protocol provides a common interface with wireline upper level protocols. In addition to the common layer 2/3 protocol, the architecture comprises a multimode physical layer for each of the carriers. The protocol architecture enables the physical layer of each carrier may have a different protocol configuration for each mobile station serviced by the carrier. Each air interface protocol instance includes one or more resource pools. The resource pools each includes: (1) a quality of service (QoS) supported; (2) a list of manageable resources; (3) a carrier identification; and (4) an air interface configuration. Additionally, the layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2/3 protocol includes one or more Radio Link Protocol (RLP) instances (or a QoS Link Protocol) and one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.