A method receives error measurements from network elements. Groups of network elements are generated based on similarity of error measurements and a bitloading profile for each of the groups of network elements is generated based on the error measurements for each respective group. Each bitloading profile includes a modulation level determined to be sufficient for transporting content to respective groups of network elements. The method then assigns a set of bitloading profiles to each network element based on the groups of network elements and the bitloading profile generated for each of the groups. The bitloading profile for each of the groups of network elements and the assigned set of bitloading profiles are output to a network device. The network device uses the bitloading profiles to modulate content sent to respective customer premise equipment.