Closed loop power control for low earth orbit satellite communications system

摘要

A satellite communication system (10) includes at least one satellite communication signal repeater (12); at least one ground station (18) for transmitting a feeder link comprised of a plurality of communication signals to the at least one satellite communication signal repeater; and a plurality of user terminals (13) each receiving one of the communication signals over a user link from the at least one satellite communication signal repeater. A method includes steps of measuring a quality of at least one reference signal received by the user terminal, via the satellite; transmitting the measured quality of the reference signal received by the user terminal to the ground station; comparing the measured quality with a predetermined reference; and adjusting a transmit power of the ground station in response to a difference between the predetermined reference and measured quality. The transmit power of the ground station is adjusted so that a flux density of a downlink beam is substantially constant at the user terminal independent of the location of the user terminal in the beam.