Methods and apparatus for controlling earth-station transmitted power in a VSAT network

A method for regulating the power of an inbound signal sent from a VSAT earth-station to a hub earth-station, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving an outbound signal sent from the hub earth-station to the VSAT earth-station the outbound signal including signal data and parameter data;
• determining signal properties of the received outbound signal;
• and
• modifying the inbound transmission signal based on the parameter data, the signal properties, and reference data, wherein:
• the signal properties include the ratio of received energy per bit to the noise density for the outbound signal,
• the reference data includes a reference ratio of received energy per bit to the noise density, and
• the step of modifying the inbound transmission signal operates based on a comparison of the ratio of received energy per bit to the noise density for the outbound signal compared to the reference ratio of received energy per bit to the noise density.

A method for regulating the power of an inbound signal sent from a VSAT earth-station to a hub earth-station, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving an outbound signal sent from the hub earth-station to the VSAT earth-station, the outbound signal including signal data and parameter data;
• determining signal properties of the received outbound signal;
• and
• modifying the inbound transmission signal based on the parameter data, the signal properties, and reference data, wherein the parameter data includes information regarding a previous inbound power level of a previous inbound signal.

A method for regulating the power of an inbound signal sent from a VSAT earth-station to a hub earth-station, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving an outbound signal sent from the hub earth-station to the VSAT earth-station, the outbound signal including signal data and parameter data;
• determining signal properties of the received outbound signal;
• modifying the inbound transmission signal based on the parameter data, the signal properties, and reference data,
• determining internal VSAT congestion information;
• and
• modifying an inbound transmission signal based on the internal VSAT congestion information and the hub congestion information,
• wherein the parameter data includes hub congestion information, and
• wherein the step of modifying the inbound transmission signal uses aggregate congestion information calculated by comparing the hub congestion information with the internal VSAT congestion information.

A method for regulating the power of an inbound signal sent from a VSAT earth-station to a hub earth-station, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving an outbound signal sent from the hub earth-station to the VSAT earth-station, the outbound signal including signal data and parameter data;
• determining signal properties of the received outbound signal;
• and
• modifying the inbound transmission signal based on the parameter data, the signal properties, and reference data;
• determining whether a desired inbound signal power is greater than a maximum allowed inbound signal power;
• and
• setting an actual inbound signal power equal to the maximum allowed inbound signal power if the determining step determines that the desired inbound signal power is greater than the maximum allowed inbound signal power.