Patent ID: 8149869

Claim:
A return payload of a multispot telecommunication satellite in a telecommunication network for establishing radiofrequency links between gateways and ground terminals via a telecommunication satellite with several spot beams, the network including: a multispot satellite including a payload for receiving, processing and resending the telecommunication signals received by the satellite; a service area comprised of a plurality of basic coverage areas, called cells, each cell comprising a plurality of ground terminals; a plurality N GWactive of active gateways interconnected by a ground network, N GWactive being an integer, the satellite relaying the signals sent by said N GWactive active gateways to the cells; N GW −N GWactive gateways, N GW being an integer strictly greater than the number N GWactive of active gateways, said N GW gateways being interconnected by said ground network and including said N GWactive active gateways such that the N GW −N GWactive gateways are not active, wherein the network is a bidirectional network such that the satellite relays: signals sent by the N GWactive active gateways to the cells to define first link forming a forward link, and signals sent by the cells to the N GWactive active gateways to define a second link forming a return link; the payload comprising: means to reroute a multiplexed signal from a plurality of signals sent by the cells, the multiplexed signal initially being intended for one of the N GWactive active gateways that had become unavailable, to one of the N GWactive gateways including one newly activated gateway selected from among the N GW −N GWactive initially inactivated gateways; and means to amplify said multiplexed and rerouted signal, the rerouting operation being performed before the amplification operation.