Patent ID: 7289460

Claim:
A satellite communications system comprising: at least one satellite; at least one ground station each corresponding to one of the at least one satellite, each ground station including a spread spectrum transmitter and a spread spectrum receiver; and a plurality of mobile terminals, each mobile terminal including a spread spectrum transmitter and a spread spectrum receiver; wherein the spread spectrum transmitter of the at least one ground station is configured to communicate via the corresponding satellite with the spread spectrum receivers of the mobile terminals and wherein the spread spectrum receiver of the at least one ground station is configured to communicate via the satellite with the spread spectrum transmitter of the mobile terminals, using spread spectrum signals generated from baseband information signals narrower in bandwidth than the spread spectrum signals; wherein the at least one ground station each includes a radio base station to process signals received by the at least one ground station; and wherein the at least one ground station each includes a radio network controller configured to set a minimum signal to noise ratio, and wherein each mobile terminal is configured to adjust a power command and send the power command to the radio base station of the ground station via the satellite to adjust a power of the ground station based on the signals received from the ground station and the minimum signal to noise ratio set by the radio network controller.