Patent ID: 8711758

Claim:
A method for incrementally increasing deployment of gateways in a satellite communication system comprising: operating, for an initial time period, a spot beam satellite below a capacity of the spot beam satellite, the operating for the initial time period comprising: receiving, at a first antenna of the spot beam satellite, a first communication signal from a first gateway, the first communication signal providing a first portional network access capacity of the spot beam satellite for the initial time period; and distributing portions of the first portional network access capacity to each of a plurality of spot beam antennas of the spot beam satellite that are directed to different geographical locations; incrementally increasing deployment of capacity at the spot beam satellite utilizing at least a second gateway when the second gateway begins transmitting to the spot beam satellite; and operating the spot beam satellite at the incrementally increased deployment of capacity, the operating at the incrementally increased deployment of capacity comprising: receiving, at the first antenna of the spot beam satellite, the first communication signal from the first gateway, the first communication signal providing the first portional network access capacity; receiving, at a second antenna of the spot beam satellite, a second communication signal from the second gateway, the second communication signal providing a second portional network access capacity of the spot beam satellite; distributing portions of the first portional network access capacity to each of the plurality of spot beam antennas; and distributing portions of the second portional network access capacity to at least one of the plurality of spot beam antennas.