Patent ID: 8265646

Claim:
A system for dynamically assigning frequency channels to a plurality of beams in a satellite communications network, the system comprising: a bandwidth request compilation module configured to: receive bandwidth requests from each of a plurality of terminals in the satellite communications system; and generate per-beam bandwidth request data based at least in part on the received bandwidth requests; an allocation module, communicatively coupled with the bandwidth request compilation module, and configured to identify an amount of a frequency allocation for each beam based at least in part on the per-beam bandwidth request data; and a frequency channel assignment module, communicatively coupled with the allocation module, and configured to: provide a first assignment order preference to a selected beam of the plurality of beams with a largest number of frequency channels remaining to be assigned according to an amount of frequency allocated to the selected beam for a defined time duration; and dynamically assign each of the frequency channels to one or more particular beams of the plurality of beams based at least in part on the amount of the frequency allocation to each beam and on frequency reuse constraints.