Optimal allocation of a number of sub carriers to applications having diverse QoS requirements and executing on terminal devices (e.g., mobile stations). A base station (BS) considers the QoS requirements and the observed QoS for each of the applications in computing the number of sub carriers allocated to each terminal device in the forward link direction in a given time slot. For allocation in the reverse link direction, the terminal device transmits a first bit indicating whether the aggregate queue lengths (of all applications) exceeds a pre-specified threshold and a second bit indicating whether a delay bound requirement is likely to be violated in the absence of sub carrier allocation. The BS computes the number of sub carriers to be allocated in the reverse link direction based on the respective two bits received from the terminal devices.