Patent ID: 8385223

Claim:
A method for determining effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of user terminals in a satellite communication system, the method comprising: obtaining a frequency gain measurement at each of a plurality of different frequencies at a gateway, the frequency gain measurement determined based on a difference between an input signal power and a measured signal power at the gateway for each of the plurality of different frequencies; obtaining a path gain measurement for each of a plurality of different signal paths at the gateway, the path gain measurement determined based on a difference between an input signal power and a measured signal power at the gateway for each of the plurality of different signal paths; obtaining a satellite beacon signal power measurement at a receiver of the gateway; obtaining a clear sky satellite beacon signal power measurement at a receiver of the gateway; determining a rain fade level on a return downlink between a satellite and the gateway based on a difference between the satellite beacon signal power measurement and the clear sky satellite beacon signal power measurement; determining a target signal power at the gateway for one or more frequency channels, the target signal power based on the frequency gain measurement, the path gain measurement, and the rain fade level; obtaining a message signal power at the gateway of a message from a user terminal; and determining the EIRP of the user terminal based on a difference between the target signal power and the message signal power.