Patent ID: 8548377

Claim:
A method for communicating data in a geosynchronous satellite system, the method comprising: receiving at a geosynchronous satellite a plurality of uplink service beams, each of the plurality of uplink service beams being associated with a different service beam coverage area which together form a combined service beam coverage area; transmitting, by the geosynchronous satellite, a plurality of downlink service beams to a plurality of user terminals, at least one of the plurality of downlink service beams being transmitted using a common downlink frequency and a common downlink polarization; receiving, at the geosynchronous satellite, an uplink feeder beam from a gateway located within a feeder beam coverage area at least partially not overlapping the combined service beam coverage area and, in response to receiving the uplink feeder beam, forming the plurality of downlink service beams; and forming a downlink feeder beam responsive to the plurality of uplink service beams and transmitting, by the geosynchronous satellite, the downlink feeder beam using the common downlink frequency and the common downlink polarization.