Patent ID: 7450914

Claim:
A system for providing automated distributed provisioning satellite resources in a satellite communication network comprising: at least one satellite, said satellite comprising a plurality of antenna elements for receiving transmissions from geographically distinct cells, a plurality of demodulators each adapted to demodulate signals in a particular frequency band, a switch matrix for connecting said antenna elements to said demodulators, and a payload processor for configuring said switch matrix to configure said satellite resources as a payload configuration, wherein said resources comprise a plurality of channels for transmitting information to or from said satellite; a satellite resource allocation plan, comprising information about the payload configuration over time and an allocation of satellite capacity pools amongst a plurality of remote network operators at geographically distributed locations; a capacity management unit having a plurality of network interfaces displayed to and accessible by the remote network operators, wherein the capacity management unit is adapted to automatically (i) receive via the network interfaces a capacity allocation plan from any one of the remote network operators requesting a capacity allocation within one or more capacity pools allocated to said one network operator, (ii) to determine whether said capacity allocation plan can be fulfilled based on a plurality of system constraints including the satellite resource allocation plan, (iii) to update the satellite resource allocation plan based on results of the determination, and to send commands to said payload processor in order to modify the payload configuration to satisfy the capacity allocation plan.