# US 11,451,320 B2 · On-the-fly inroute adaptive modulation > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,451,320 B2 - Document ID: US11451320B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/144,752 - Filed: 2021-01-08 - Published: 2021-05-06 - Granted: 2022-09-20 - Earliest claimed: 2019-07-26 - Assignees: Hughes Network Systems, LLC - Applicants: Hughes Network Systems, LLC - Inventors: John Border - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11451320B2 ## CPC - H04B 7/18543: {for adaptation of transmission parameters, e.g. power control (for detecting or preventing errors in the information received H04L1/00)} - H04L 1/0003: {by switching between different modulation schemes} - H04B 7/18513: {Transmission in a satellite or space-based system} - H04B 7/18519: {Operations control, administration or maintenance} - H04L 1/0009: {by adapting the channel coding (H04L1/1812 takes precedence)} - H04L 27/0008: {arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation (negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453)} - H04B: TRANSMISSION - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract Various arrangements for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications are presented herein. A terminal may access a feedback data structure to perform a lookup based on a power level received as feedback. Based on performing the lookup using the power level in the feedback data structure, the terminal may determine an error correcting code rate to be used. The terminal may transmit one or more data packets to the satellite using the determined error correcting code rate without changing communication channel or requesting permission via the satellite to change the error correcting code rate. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications, the method comprising: receiving, by a terminal, power level feedback from a satellite, wherein the power level feedback is indicative of a received power level of a data transmission previously sent from the terminal to the satellite; accessing, by the terminal, a feedback data structure to perform a lookup based on the received power level, wherein: the feedback data structure maps a plurality of error correcting code rates with a plurality of minimum power level thresholds; the feedback data structure comprises a plurality of entries; each entry of the plurality of entries maps one of the plurality of error coding rates with one of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; the plurality of entries of the feedback data structure are ranked according to the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; and each of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds are mapped to a same symbol rate; based on performing the lookup based on the received power level in the feedback data structure, determining, by the terminal, the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; determining, by the terminal, to decrease a symbol rate in response to determining that the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; and transmitting, by the terminal, data packets to the satellite using a decreased symbol rate in response to determining that the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds mapped to the same symbol rate. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 1, wherein the feedback data structure further maps the plurality of minimum power level thresholds to a plurality of types of modulation. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 1, wherein determining the error correcting coding rate further comprises: selecting, by the terminal, an entry from the plurality of entries based on the power level feedback being greater than a first minimum power level threshold of the entry but the power level feedback being less than a second minimum power level threshold of a next higher ranked entry. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 3, wherein the plurality of entries are interspersed such that one error coding rate of the plurality of error coding rates is mapped to a first entry having a higher rank than a second entry mapped to a second error coding rate of the plurality of error coding rates and the one error coding rate is mapped to a third entry having a lower rank than the second entry mapped to the second error coding rate. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 1, the method further comprising: prior to transmitting data packets to the satellite using the determined error correcting coding rate, transmitting, by the terminal, a burst packet header that indicates the determined error correcting coding rate. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 5, wherein the burst packet header is transmitted using a fixed modulation and fixed code rate that is unchanging in relation to a type of modulation used for modulation of the data packets. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 6, further comprising: creating, by the terminal, the data packets to the satellite using the determined error correcting code rate. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method for adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the terminal to the satellite, a request to change the symbol rate on a channel designated for aloha random access. ### Claim 9 A system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications, the system comprising: a terminal that is in communication with a gateway system via a satellite and a satellite antenna, wherein the terminal comprises one or more non-transitory processor-readable mediums and the terminal is configured to: receive power level feedback from the satellite, wherein the power level feedback is indicative of a received power level of a data transmission previously sent from the terminal to the satellite; access a feedback data structure stored using the one or more non-transitory processor-readable mediums to perform a lookup based on the received power level, wherein: the feedback data structure maps a plurality of error correcting code rates with a plurality of minimum power level thresholds; the feedback data structure comprises a plurality of entries; each entry of the plurality of entries maps one of the plurality of error coding rates with one of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; the plurality of entries of the feedback data structure are ranked according to the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; and each of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds are mapped to a same symbol rate; based on performing the lookup based on the received power level in the feedback data structure, determine the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; determine to decrease a symbol rate in response to determining that the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds; and transmit data packets to the satellite using a decreased symbol rate in response to determining that the received power level is not greater than any of the plurality of minimum power level thresholds mapped to the same symbol rate. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 9, further comprising the satellite, wherein the satellite relays communications between the terminal and the gateway system. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 10, further comprising the gateway system, wherein the gateway system determines the power level feedback and transmits the power level feedback to the satellite. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 9, wherein the feedback data structure maps the plurality of minimum power level thresholds to a plurality of types of modulation. ### Claim 13 (depends on 9) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 9, wherein the terminal being configured to determine the type of modulation comprises the terminal being configured to: select an entry from the plurality of entries based on the power level feedback being greater than a first minimum power level threshold of the entry but the power level feedback being less than a second minimum power level threshold of a next higher ranked entry. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 13, wherein: the plurality of entries are interspersed such that one error correcting code rate of the plurality of error correcting code rates is mapped to a first entry having a higher rank than a second entry mapped to a second error correcting code rate of the plurality of error correcting code rates and the one error correcting code rate is mapped to a third entry having a lower rank than the second entry mapped to the second error correcting code rate. ### Claim 15 (depends on 9) The system that performs adaptive modulation of terminal to satellite communications of claim 9, wherein the terminal is further configured to: transmit a burst packet header that indicates the error correcting coding rate to use for transmitting data packets to the satellite.