Adaptive control of satellite resources

The deep fades in a satellite communications network employing the 20-30 GHz bands may be overcome by adapting the satellite resources to the dynamic environment. In such a concept, all links contribute to a mutual insurance scheme by surrendering part of their clear-weather link margins when necessary to support individual links threatened by outage. The merits of exercising network resource control by satellite processing, rather than at each accessing earth terminal, are explored. Multibeam antennas and multimode transponders are candidate control elements in the generic approaches discussed. Significant advantages of satellite-processed control concepts appear to be improved link availability without site diversity arrangements, viability of standardized, low-cost terminals, and achievement of small loop delays in a central control scheme.