Satellite Integrated Communications Network

The topic of the presentation is “Satellite Integrated Communication Networks”. Each of the four words is important: we will consider communications using geostationary satellite relays to transmit all-together voice, data, image, and text in an integrated way over a multi station network. One of the most publicised examples of such networks has been SBS (Satellite Business Systems Corporation) that is about to be put into service in the United States, but other similar networks are being planned all over the world; (e.g. Telecom I, ECS, etc. ...); they will be mentioned in the course of the presentation.The purpose of the presentation is simply to show the basic concepts, to give an understanding of the main technical problems that face satellite integrated communication network designers, of the different approaches that were followed to solve them, and of the main economical implications of such networks. In the first part we shall focus on the main technical problems (e.g. transmission, frequency, power, multiplexing techniques, space channel allocation), the present solutions, the future trends. — In the second part we shall deal with the economics, adding some emphasis on “value added” services and network management. Throughout the presentation, we will use the SBS system as an example to demonstrate and illustrate some of the notions and techniques described.