A layered operating system architecture enables decoupling of a media access control (MAC) layer from a physical (PHY) layer. The decoupled MAC and PHY layer removes responsibility from the MAC layer with respect to understanding network resources, network space and network scheduling and allocation demands when processing data for transport over a network. The MAC layer may instead operate according to an allocation scheduled provided by a convergence layer responsible for understanding the varying conditions and demand attendant to supporting communications over the network.