Abstract
A satellite communication system increases its efficiency by using adaptive pipeline polling as the control protocol. In this protocol, the earth stations are separated into active and inactive sets and a first number of slots (salary) is assigned to each active station. Additionally, periodically active stations are queried as to the length of their queues and assigned salary slots not needed by any active station are reallofted to stations with queues that exceed their assigned salary in proportion to the size of such excess. A contention period is included outside of the normal salary and bonus periods during which stations in the inactive are allowed to contend to be included in the active set.