Patent ID: 8660482

Claim:
A satellite, comprising a payload subsystem comprising a first frequency converter, a second frequency converter, a satellite feeder link antenna feed, and a satellite user link antenna feed, said payload subsystem being communicatively coupled (i) to at least one gateway by a feeder link operating at a first frequency band; and (ii) to a plurality of user terminals by a user link operating at a second frequency band, wherein: the first frequency converter downconverts, to a third frequency band, as an aggregated block, signals received at the satellite feeder link antenna feed from the gateway via the feeder link, said third frequency band being substantially lower than the first frequency band and the second frequency band; the downconverted signals are processed by the payload subsystem and routed to the second frequency converter; and the second frequency converter upconverts the downconverted signals to the second frequency band for transmission by the satellite user link antenna feed over the user link to the user terminals; the first frequency converter is proximate to the satellite feeder link antenna feed array; the second frequency converter is proximate to the satellite user link antenna feed array; and the received signals are aggregated within a user beam feed cluster and the aggregated received signals are routed, at the third frequency band, from a location proximate to the satellite user link antenna feed array to a location proximate to the satellite feeder link antenna feed array.