A method and apparatus for requesting bandwidth allocation and allocating a bandwidth in response to the request in a communication system are provided, in which an mobile station detects a second CID requiring bandwidth allocation, the second CID being different from a first CID included in a MAC header, generates a grant management subheader including an order field and a bandwidth field, the order field being for writing a rank of the second CID in a CID list listing CIDs of the mobile station according to a predetermined criterion and the bandwidth field being for writing a bandwidth required for the second CID, concatenates the grant management subheader to the MAC header, and transmits the concatenated MAC header and grant management subheader to a base station to request bandwidth allocation for the second CID.