Priority and preemption service system for satellite related communication using central controller

In a communications system including at least one antenna for receiving and transmitting messages to and from feederlink earth stations (FESs) connected to at least one land line communications network and mobile earth terminals (METs) of a mobile communication system;

• a communication switching office connected to said at least one antenna and coupled through an interface system to a central controller;
• and a network operations center (NOC) for managing and controlling resources of the communications system, the NOC communicating with various internal and external entities in a control network, allocating said system resources, updating network functions, enabling monitoring of customer usage, detecting fault conditions, and transmitting system information to an operator station, a priority and preemption system for managing resources in real time to satisfy a resource request for a priority and preemption event, said priority and preemption system performing the functions of:
• processing a resource allocation request for communications resources in the communications system when said communication system has identified underutilized communication resources, and when said communications system has not identified underutilized communications resources and the resource allocation request has sufficient priority;
• and
• releasing the communication resources to be used for the priority and preemption event, said releasing the communication resources occurring in response to the resource allocation request of the sufficient priority or in response to the identified underutilization of said communication resources within the communications system.