Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Northrop Gumman Corporation

Richard L Vogel

William F Courtney

Raymond M Nuber

Multiple bandwidth requestors (), a bandwidth manager () and a forward link () from the bandwidth manager to the bandwidth requestors are used to allocate bandwidth in a return link beam (). The uplink bandwidth allocation is preferably based on the information to be transmitted provided by the user Automatic Data Processing Equipment (ADPE) () and overall system data loading. The preferred method exercised by the bandwidth manager () allocates bandwidth on the return link () to individual user terminals in either a minimal rate required for the protocol being exercised (), a committed information rate required for the services being requested, or a fair share rate () that allows maximum transfer of data from the user terminal () to the gateway ().

Variable bandwidth satellite communication techniques

The present method ( ) for allocating bandwidth in a satellite communication system ( ) includes determining ( ) an uplink assignment of uplinks ( ) to user terminals ( ) and a gateway ( ). The uplink assignment is preferably based on input parameters including a gateway uplink efficiency, a user terminal uplink efficiency, and a traffic ratio between the user terminal and the gateway. The method ( ) also determines a downlink assignment of downlinks ( ) to the user terminals ( ) and one or more gateways ( ). The downlink assignment is preferably based on traffic offered to the user terminals ( ) and the gateways ( ) as dictated by the uplink assignment. Either of the uplink assignment and downlink assignment may be integer or non-integer assignments.

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Palos Verdes Estates, CA, United States of America

Richard L Vogel