AbstractThe architecture of an experimental payload with on‐board processing capabilities is described. Since the system is proposed as an experimental one it operates with only four beams in the 20/30 GHz frequency band. Special emphasis is put on the design of the switch and its associated control. The switch operates in a synchronous circuit‐switching manner and provides a throughput of 131 Mb/s. To derive the requirements for the on‐board controller, a process model is established. This model shows that an implementation in a finite state machine will not give enough flexibility. Therefore a microprocessor system is proposed for the contr