Patent ID: 7627285

Claim:
A space-based component (SBC) of a communications system, the SBC comprising: a plurality of service link antenna elements configured to transmit/receive information to/from radioterminals; a plurality of feeder links each providing information to/from a respective processing facility; and a channelizer configured to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC via a service link antenna element to different feeder links of the plurality of feeder links and/or to map different spectral components of a feeder link signal received at the SBC via a feeder link to different service link antenna elements; wherein the plurality of service link antenna elements comprises a first group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a first service region of the SBC and a second group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a second service region of the SBC, and wherein the channelizer is configured to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC by a service link antenna element of the first group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a first group of feeder links and to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC by a service link antenna element of the second group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a second group of feeder links.