Beam hopping self addressed packet switched communication system with locally intelligent scheduling

1. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory, the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein the scheduling entry comprises a first payload scheduling entry for the payload in the frame, and wherein the scheduling table further comprises a second payload scheduling entry for a second payload in the frame.

2. The frame scheduler of claim 1 wherein the header field defines a payload type indicative of a coding rate for the payload.

3. The frame scheduler of claim 1 , wherein the memory comprises a plurality of scheduling segments for directing preparation of downlink frames.

4. The frame scheduler of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling segment comprises a plurality of scheduling entries, each scheduling entry directing preparation of a subsequent downlink frame.

5. The frame scheduler of claim 1 , wherein the data are ATM cells.

6. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory, the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein the header field defines a first payload type field for a first payload in the frame and a second payload type field for a second payload in the frame.

7. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory, the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling ent comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein:

the payload data pointers comprise queue pointers;

the queue pointers are indicative of downlink beam hop location;

the queue pointers are further indicative of priority;

the queue pointers are further indicative of code rate; and

the code rate is one of a light and heavy code rate.

8. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein the payload header further defines a frame offset pointing to a subsequent payload header.

9. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein the header field defines a power gated payload type.

10. A downlink beam frame scheduler comprising:

a memory; and

a schedule table stored in the memory, the schedule table comprising:

a scheduling segment comprising at least one scheduling entry the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers to data in memory to be transmitted in the payload,

wherein the header field defines a power gated frame type.

11. A downlink frame processing system for a satellite, the frame processing system comprising:

a packet switch routing self addressed uplink data from an input port to an output port;

a memory coupled to the output port, the memory comprising storage for at least two downlink beam hop locations; and

a downlink scheduler coupled to the memory, the downlink scheduler including a downlink schedule comprising at least one scheduling entry, the scheduling entry comprising a header field defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers into the memory,

wherein the header field defines a first payload type field for a first payload in the frame and a second payload type field for a second payload in the frame.

12. The frame processing system of claim 11 wherein the payload data pointers comprise queue pointers.

13. The frame processing system of claim 11 , wherein the queue pointers are indicative of downlink beam hop location.

14. The frame scheduler of claim 13 , wherein the queue pointers are further indicative of priority.

15. The frame scheduler of claim 14 , wherein the queue pointers are further indicative of code rate.

16. The frame scheduler of claim 15 , wherein the code rate is one of a light and heavy code rate.

17. A method for preparing downlink frames for transmission in a satellite downlink, the method comprising:

switching self addressed uplink data from a switch input port to a switch output port;

allocating, in a memory, storage for at least two downlink beam hop locations;

forming downlink frames by processing a downlink schedule comprising at least one scheduling entry, a header field in the scheduling entry defining at least one of a payload and a frame type for at least one of a payload and a frame to be transmitted, and payload data pointers into the memory; and

servicing a light coding queue when a heavy coding queue indicated by a queue pointer is empty;

wherein:

the processing the payload data pointers comprises processing queue pointers;

the processing the queue pointers comprises processing queue pointers indicative of downlink beam hop location;

the processing the queue pointers comprises processing queue pointers indicative of priority; and

the processing queue pointers comprises processing queue pointers indicative of code rate.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the allocating includes allocating a first downlink beam hop location queue and a second downlink beam hop location queue.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the processing includes processing an active one of a plurality of scheduling segments storing the downlink schedule.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising deallocating the active one of the plurality of scheduling segments and activating a different one of the the plurality of scheduling segments.

21. The method of claim 17 , further comprising the step of servicing a different queue when a scheduled queue indicated by a queue pointer is empty.