Patent ID: 8456986

Claim:
A load balancing communications network configured to communicate with a plurality of data terminals in a satellite environment, the network comprising: a first data terminal and a second data terminal, each being one of the plurality of data terminals, each configured to receive a transmission over a satellite link; a gateway, in communication with the plurality of data terminals and comprising: a source data receiver module configured to receive first source data representing video content to be communicated to the first data terminal and second source data representing broadband data content to be communicated to the second data terminal; a pre-coder module configured to pre-code the first source data using a first pre-coding scheme to generate a first set of representation data decodable independently to provide a set of first-level playback data representing the first source data, and pre-code the first source data using a second pre-coding scheme to generate a second set of representation data decodable in combination with the first set of representation data to provide a set of second-level playback data representing the first source data; and an ACM module configured to associate the first set of representation data with a first channel coding and modulation scheme, and associate the second set of representation data with a second channel coding and modulation scheme, wherein the second channel coding and modulation scheme is of a higher order than the first channel coding and modulation scheme; and a transceiver module configured to generate a first transmission by applying the first channel coding and modulation scheme to the first set of representation data and applying the second channel coding and modulation scheme to the second set of representation data, generate a second transmission from the second source data, and communicate the first transmission to the first data terminal and the second transmission to the second data terminal over the satellite link.