Patent ID: 8208421

Claim:
A gateway configured to transmit a signal to respective user terminals via a bent-pipe satellite, the gateway comprising: a receiver configured to: receive first data to be transmitted via the bent-pipe satellite destined for a first user terminal; and receive second data identifying link conditions for the first user terminal; a bandwidth allocator, communicatively coupled with the receiver, and configured to: determine an increased bandwidth requirement for the first user terminal; increase a proportional allocation of physical layer frames including a sub-channel identifier associated with the first user terminal; and control an encapsulator to generate the physical layer frames with the sub-channel identifier in the increased proportion; an adaptive coding and modulation assignor, communicatively coupled with the receiver, and configured to assign a modulation and coding format for the first data responsive to the link conditions; the encapsulator, communicatively coupled with the receiver, the bandwidth allocator, and the adaptive coding and modulation assignor, and configured to: utilize the assigned modulation and coding format to set a block size for a payload for a first physical layer frame, the block size set to produce a physical layer frame of substantially equal duration in reference to adjacent physical layer frames to be transmitted from the gateway; and encapsulate at least a portion of the first data in the set block size for the payload of the first physical layer frame, the first physical layer frame including a header with the sub-channel identifier formatted to direct the first physical layer frame to the first user terminal and to provide information allowing the first user terminal to identify the first physical layer frame as a frame to be demodulated and decoded; and a transmitter, communicatively coupled with the encapsulator, and configured to upconvert and transmit the first physical layer frame to the bent-pipe satellite.