Patent ID: 8254303

Claim:
A system for efficient control signaling over shared communication channels, the system comprising: a gateway configured to encode and to transmit a plurality of physical layer headers, the plurality of physical layer headers including at least a first physical layer header and a second physical layer header, wherein: each physical layer header includes a plurality of modcode partitions, wherein each modcode partition is associated with a respective modcode point associated with the respective physical layer header; the first physical layer header spans a first length and includes information representing a first modcode; and the second physical layer header spans a second length and includes information representing a second modcode, wherein the second length is longer than the first length; and a plurality of terminals, in wireless communication with the gateway via satellite, wherein the plurality of terminals includes at least: a first terminal configured to decode the first physical layer header and to determine the first modcode; and a second terminal configured to decode the second physical layer header and determine the second modcode.