A multiple-access transceiver handles communications with mobile stations in environments that exceed mobile station design assumptions without necessarily requiring modifications to the mobile stations. One such environment is in Earth orbit. The multiple-access transceiver is adapted to close communications with mobile stations while exceeding mobile station design assumptions, such as greater distance, greater relative motion and/or other conditions commonly found where functionality of a terrestrial transceiver is to be performed by an orbital transceiver. The orbital transceiver might include a data parser that parses a frame data structure, a signal timing module that adjusts timing based on orbit to terrestrial propagation delays, frequency shifters and a programmable radio capable of communicating from the Earth orbit that uses a multiple-access protocol such that the communication is compatible with, or appears to the terrestrial mobile station to be, communication between a terrestrial cellular base station and the terrestrial mobile station.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for dynamically reducing an aperture size to reduce overhead. For example, a server can receive a first transmission from a first terminal through a communication network. The server can determine a timing offset associated with the first terminal based on the first transmission. The server can determine an aperture window size for an aperture window for the first terminal based on the determined timing offset associated with the first terminal. The server can generate allocation data that assigns communication resources to one or more terminals that includes the first terminal, the allocation data being based on the determined aperture window size for the first terminal. The server can communicate with the one or more terminals to indicate the communication resources respectively allocated to the one or more terminals.

A method and wireless communication device use a first processing unit to perform a first communication event within a first communication window by use of a first communication protocol, a second processing unit to perform a second communication event within a second communication window by use of a second communication protocol, and a wireless communication unit connected to a radio-frequency antenna to transmit and/or receive a packet wirelessly. The first and second processing units may perform the first and second communication events via the wireless communication unit. The second processing unit or the wireless communication unit may transmit an event signal to the first processing unit when performing the second communication event or receiving a packet, respectively, to allow the first processing unit to arrange the first communication window (or first communication event) with respect to the second communication window (or second communication event) to minimize interference.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for dynamically reducing an aperture size to reduce overhead. In some implementations, a server can receive a first transmission from a first terminal through a communication network. The server can determine a timing offset associated with the first terminal based on the first transmission. The server can determine an aperture window size for an aperture window for the first terminal based on the determined timing offset associated with the first terminal. The server can generate allocation data that assigns communication resources to one or more terminals that includes the first terminal, the allocation data being based on the determined aperture window size for the first terminal. The server can communicate with the one or more terminals to indicate the communication resources respectively allocated to the one or more terminals.