Embodiments disclosed herein relate to carrier allocation and management in multi-carrier communication systems. In some embodiments, the number of carriers assigned to an access terminal on a forward link may be determined by an access network, and the number of carriers assigned to the access terminal on a reverse link may be based on a cooperative process between the access terminal and the access network. In other embodiments, the number of carriers assigned to the access terminal on the reverse link may also be determined by the access network, e.g., in relation to the scheduling information received from the access terminal.