Patent ID: 7024190

Claim:
A method of communication between earth terminals and satellites, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of satellites, each satellite having at least one receiver tunable to a selected frequency; providing a plurality of earth terminals adapted to send messages to, and receive messages from, the plurality of satellites; defining at least one subband of the frequency spectrum, said subband not being non-mutually exclusive of other subbands; assigning at least one subband to each satellite receiver to accommodate a plurality of regulatory constraints and requirements for one or more countries; assigning each earth terminal to one of the satellite receivers; dynamically selecting a center frequency for the communication channel for each receiver within the subband assigned to that receiver; tuning each satellite receiver to the communication channel selected for that receiver; informing at least the listening earth terminals of the communication channel selected for the receiver to which each earth terminal is assigned; compensating for differential frequency and time of arrival arising from low-Earth Orbit spacecraft dynamics; transmitting messages from the earth terminals to the respective, assigned satellite receivers at the selected communication channel for each receiver.