Flexible power and bandwidth allocation in mobile satellites

The introduction of L-band mobile communication services by spot beam satellites creates a payload design challenge due to uncertainty in the location and size of the new market to be served. A combination of payload technologies that allow a flexible allocation of power and bandwidth to any portion of the coverage area is described. Power flexibility is achieved by a novel combination of a low-level beam-forming network and a matrix power module which ensures equal sharing of power among individual amplifiers. This eliminates the loss of efficiency and increased mass when an amplifier associated with a beam must be over-designed to meet uncertainties in power distribution between beams. The matrix power amplifier also benefits from the spreading of intermodulation products among output ports such that only a portion falls in the beam of interest, yielding lower system-level intermodulation. Flexibility in allocation of bandwidth to beams is achieved by intermediate frequency subdivision of the L-band service categories defined by ITU (AMSS, LMSS, MMSS). These spectral subdivisions are assigned to beams by an IF interconnect matrix having beam ports and filter ports as inputs and outputs, respectively. Two such filter switch matrices are required, one for the inbound L-band to feeder link transponder, and one for the outbound feeder link to L-band transponder