Patent ID: 8340016

Claim:
A method for conducting communications via a satellite comprising: providing a hub-spoke spot beam group using at least one directional antenna on the satellite, the hub-spoke spot beam group comprising at least one fixed location spot beam illuminating a location containing a gateway terminal and at least one other fixed location spot beam illuminating a location containing at least one user terminal; wherein the satellite comprises a pathway associated with the hub-spoke spot beam group; sequentially switching at least one receive-side switch to connect an input of the pathway with different spot beams within the hub-spoke spot beam group, according to a receive beam switching pattern; sequentially switching at least one transmit-side switch to connect an output of the pathway with different spot beams within the hub-spoke spot beam group, according to a transmit beam switching pattern; wherein the receive beam switching pattern and the transmit beam switching pattern are synchronized over a frame to establish both forward traffic and return traffic over the pathway during the frame, the forward traffic being sent from the gateway to the at least one user terminal, the return traffic being sent from the at least one user terminal to the gateway; and wherein a first fraction of time in the frame is used to support forward traffic and a second fraction of time in the frame is used to support return traffic, wherein the first and second fractions are selected based on a desired ratio between forward and return capacity.