Patent ID: 8634768

Claim:
A method of providing a redundant communication path for communication signals that are transmitted between a satellite and a plurality of active gateways comprising: receiving, at a plurality of active transceivers on said satellite, uplink communication signals from a plurality of user terminals to generate a plurality of input channel signals; multiplexing said received uplink communication signals to a plurality of signal channels, each signal channel comprising a channel amplifier, wherein the plurality of signal channels comprises at least one redundant signal channel; multiplexing said signal channels to generate said communication signals for transmission to said plurality of gateways; transmitting said communication signals between said plurality of active transceivers on said satellite and said plurality of operational gateways; detecting a change in performance of transmission of said communication signals between said satellite and one operational gateway of said plurality of operational gateways; directing said communication signals of said one operational gateway to an additional transceiver in said satellite in response to detecting said change in performance of said transmission of said communication signals of said one active operational gateway; transmitting said communication signals of said one operational gateway between said additional transceiver and a utility gateway.