1. A method, comprising: receiving at a terminal of a satellite communication system a load balancing table transmitted over a home carrier; selecting one of a plurality of system segments in accordance with load information included in said received load balancing table, wherein the terminal is configured to perform said selecting independently and without having knowledge of segment selections made by other terminals in the satellite communication system, and without transmitting a load balancing request to a hub of said satellite communication system; extracting from the load balancing table one or more descriptors corresponding to a forward channel corresponding to the selected system segment; tuning to the forward channel of the selected segment using the extracted descriptors; and sending from the terminal a logon request to the hub.