Combinations of a number of physical resource blocks and modulation and coding schemes which meet a data rate threshold are selected. For each combination of the number of physical resource blocks and modulation and coding schemes, a signal gain is calculated. The combination of the number of physical resource blocks and modulation and coding schemes corresponding to the largest signal gain is selected, and information is transmitted from an access node to a wireless device over a communication link using the selected combination of the number of physical resource blocks and modulation and coding schemes.