Patent ID: 7728766

Claim:
A method for communication between a satellite and a remote communication device, comprising: a. at the satellite: i. receiving a signal transmitted from the remote communication device at M plurality of antenna elements of the satellite to produce M plurality of receive signals; and ii. applying a set of fixed weights to the M plurality of receive signals to produce L plurality of weighted signals, where L is less than M; iii. transmitting the L plurality of weighted signals on corresponding ones of L downlink channels to a ground-based station; b. at the ground-based station: i. receiving the L plurality of downlink channel signals; ii. applying ground-based beamforming weights to the L plurality of downlink channel signals; and iii. combining the L plurality of weighted downlink channel signals to produce a beamformed receive signal; wherein for any position of the remote communication device with respect to the satellite the ground-based beamforming weights are set to values that maximize a signal-to-noise ratio of the beamformed receive signal, and the fixed weights are selected to maximize a minimum signal-to-noise ratio of the received beamformed signal with respect to position of a remote communication device.