Abstract: An earth orbiting satellite communicates with ground-based communication terminals via a limited number of frequency channels. To maximize the amount of concurrent communication that can be accommodated, the satellite's effective service area is partitioned into cells. The position of each cell relative to nearby cells is established in support of a scheme to maximize channel reutilization. Based on knowledge of communication demand and inter-cell interference constraints, all available channels are associated with particular groups of cells having a common relative position. This establishes a preference for assigning channels to particular cell groups. As communication demand in the cells fluctuates and additional communication channels are required, the channel assignment preferences are consulted to determine which channels to assign to the requesting cells.