  In his investigation on large $K$-automorphism groups of an algebraic curve,
Stichtenoth obtained an upper bound on the order of the first ramification
group of an algebraic curve $\cX$ defined over an algebraically closed field of
characteristic $p$. Stichtenoth's bound has raised the problem of classifying
all $\K$-automorphism groups $G$ of $\cX$ with the following property: There is
a point $P\in \cX$ for which \begin{equation} |G_P^{(1)}|>\frac{p}{p-1}g.
\end{equation} Such a classification is obtained here by proving Theorem 1.3
