Devices and methods are disclosed for reducing power control cushion of a user terminal configured to communicate with a satellite and a gateway station. The present invention provides a power control algorithm implemented in a user terminal that is designed to operate in a satellite communication system. The power control algorithm can recursively calculate a returnlink power to reduce a power control cushion so that an extra link margin is available to the satellite communication system. The present invention also provides a source coding technique that provides an accurate feedback signal for the user terminal. The average metric of input signal frames is coded in a sequence of bits that are carried by contiguous output signal frames.