Patent ID: 8149761

Claim:
A method for incrementally increasing deployment of additional gateways having frequency channels in a spot beam satellite comprising: receiving a first communication signal from a first gateway at a spot beam satellite; filtering said first communication signal at the spot beam satellite from said first gateway using a first frequency filter that separates said first communication signal into a first predetermined number of first input frequency channel signals that have a plurality of different frequencies; sending said first predetermined number of first input frequency channel signals to a plurality of spot beam antennas at the spot beam satellite that are directed to different geographical locations; and incrementally increasing deployment of additional frequency channels at the spot beam satellite from at least one additional gateway when said at least one additional gateway begins transmitting at least one additional communication signal to said spot beam satellite, said incrementally increasing comprising: filtering said at least one additional communication signal from said at least one additional gateway, using at least one additional frequency filter that separates said at least one additional communication signal into a second predetermined number of additional input frequency channel signals that have a plurality of different frequencies; combining said first predetermined number of first input frequency channel signals with said second predetermined number of additional input frequency channel signals in a plurality of power combiners to produce a plurality of combined frequency channel signals that comprise a first input frequency channel signal and an additional input frequency channel signal having different frequencies; and sending said plurality of combined frequency channel signals to a plurality of spot beam antennas that are directed to different geographical locations.