Abstract: A satellite system for broadband communication with a plurality of remote locations is described. The satellite system comprises service spot beams from a satellite. Forward channels may be transported on carriers of the service spot beams. A plurality of forward sub-channels may pass on the forward channels. They system further comprises a plurality of domains that are independently managed and a plurality of satellite modems with the service spot beams. The plurality of sub-channels may be divided among the plurality of domains. Each of the domains may correspond to a plurality of time slices. A scheduler may allocate forward channels among the plurality of domains. Each of the time slices corresponding to the plurality of domains may vary in size over time.