Patent ID: 8144643

Claim:
A method for hub-spoke, bent-pipe satellite communication utilizing a satellite containing a plurality of pathways, comprising: specifying a weight set and a beam hop frame definition for a beam hopping frame, the beam hopping frame comprising a plurality of timeslots, the specified weight set comprising a plurality of receive weight vectors and a plurality of transmit weight vectors for generating uplink beam signals and downlink beam signals in timeslots of the beam hopping frame, the specified beam hop frame definition defining a plurality of sequential dwell times and a plurality of pathway gains, each timeslot associated with a dwell time; and operating the satellite to generate the uplink beam signals and downlink beam signals for pathways in accordance with the specified weight set and the specified beam hop frame definition, wherein the specified weight set and the specified beam hop frame definition support an allocation of capacity between forward traffic, from at least one gateway to a plurality of terminals, and return traffic, from a plurality of terminals to at least one gateway.