between usable frame slots to accommodate for the different delay times to the base station from the geographically dispersed remote devices the communication element of the remote devices is referred to as transceivers in this description to indicate that the principles can be applied to either a receiver or transmitter the use of this term in this context is not intended to indicate that the remote device must provide both transmission and reception capabilities the invention is also presented using the paradigm of communication of short messages one of skill in the art will recognize that although this invention is particularly well suited for short message communications the principles of this invention are not necessarily limited to such communications in like manner the invention is presented using the paradigm of a satellite communication system because such a system provides a broad coverage area but one of skill in the art will recognize that the principles of this invention are not limited to satellite systems or broad coverage areas fig1 illustrates an example satellite communication system that uses a satellite 110 in low earth orbit leo to provide communications between a base station 140 and a number of remote transceivers 120 although a higher orbit satellite such.