Method for balancing demand between satellites in a telecommunications system

A method for balancing power demands between a constellation of satellites in a satellite based telecommunication system, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining power demands by user clusters upon satellites covering associated user clusters, each power demand representing a power required of a satellite to maintain at least one communications link with a user cluster in an associated satellite coverage area;
• identifying overlapping satellite sets of satellites having coverage areas which overlap user clusters, wherein each overlapping satellite set includes at least first and second satellites;
• calculating at least one power ratio for each user cluster associated with an overlapping satellite set, wherein each power ratio represents a ratio between power demands upon at least two satellites in the overlapping satellite set by a single common cluster in an associated overlapping coverage area;
• and
• for each overlapping satellite set, determining whether the satellites have unbalanced power demands with respect to other satellites in the overlapping satellite set;
• and
• balancing power demands upon satellites in each overlapping satellite set by assigning user clusters in the overlapping coverage region to satellites based on said power ratios.