Low data volume satellite communication system

A communication system, comprising:

• a terminal;
• a satellite which creates a beams having beam shapes, the beams including a camped beam and at least one neighboring beam which neighbors the camped beam, the camped beam enabling communication with the terminal when the terminal is located inside the camped beam such that the satellite communicates with the terminal using a forward link and the terminal communicates with the satellite using a reverse link;
• network infrastructure in wireless communication with the satellite and the terminal, the network infrastructure having an information element which is sent to the satellite and which is broadcast by the satellite along with system information, the information element including scheduled transmission information and beam shape information representing the beam shapes;
• wherein, the terminal is configured to:
• wake up at a pre-scheduled time;
• read system information broadcast by the satellite;
• read the information element;
• derive a location estimate of the terminal;
• determine a reverse link transmit power for the terminal based on the beam shape information;
• determine an information data rate for the terminal based on a threshold signal-to-noise ratio for the reverse link;
• and
• communicate with the network infrastructure by sending a burst at the determined reverse link transmit power and information data rate, the communication comprising a message at a pre-scheduled time such that the network infrastructure can derive a terminal identity for the terminal by comparing the time of the burst with the scheduled transmission information in the information element without having to include terminal identity information in the message.