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The satellite‐fed millimeter‐wave personal communication system that is described requires a satellite with a multi‐beam antenna in order to guarantee the required link availability in point‐to‐point communications between numerous widely distributed small Earth stations. The usual method of antenna beam allocation requires high beam power in the downlink, giving rise to realizability problems due to limitations on the output power of the millimeter‐wave transmitter. This paper proposes an approach to optimizing the allocation of downlink antenna beams in which the beams are assigned to service areas that are chosen with reference to population distribution, rainfall attenuation in the millimeter‐wave region, and constraints on beam power. A computer simulation based on nationwide rainfall attenuation and population distribution data indicates that the proposed approach is more effective than with the usual beam allocation method. The equipment configuration of the satellite is described.

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