Communications systems have always been a critical element in aviation. Until recently, nearly all communications between the ground and aircraft have been based on analog voice technology. But the future of global aviation requires a more sophisticated "information infrastructure" which not only provides more and better communications, but integrates the key information functions (communicatio...

Small satellite technology has opened a new era in aerospace engineering by decreasing space mission costs, without greatly reducing the performance. The concept of formation flying using small satellites is becoming popular because of their potential to perform coordinated measurements of remote sensing space missions. The current state of art in satellite communications is a one hop link betw...

This three-day course is designed for satellite communications engineers, spacecraft engineers, and managers who want to obtain an understanding of the “big picture” of satellite communications. Each topic is illustrated by detailed worked numerical examples, using published data for actual satellite communications systems. The course is technically oriented and includes mathematical derivation...

Within the recently launched 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Commission, 21 major players in satellite communications research have joined forces to implement the European Satellite Communications Network of Excellence (SatNEx). The primary goal of SatNEx is to achieve long-lasting integration of the European research in satellite communication and to develop a common base of k...

Quantum communication (QC), namely, the faithful transmission of generic quantum states, is a key ingredient of quantum information science. Here we demonstrate QC with polarization encoding from space to ground by exploiting satellite corner cube retroreflectors as quantum transmitters in orbit and the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory of the Italian Space Agency in Matera, Italy, as a quantum ...

As an initial step in exploring the opportunities afforded by the merging of satellite and terrestrial networks, Bellcore and JPL conducted several experiments utilizing Bellcore’s experimental Personal Communications System, NASA’s Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) and JPL’s ACTS Mobile Terminal. These experiments provided valuable information on the applications, interfaces,...

Satellite ISPs connect users to the Internet by means of satellite communication. In this paper we discuss how to misuse satellite ISPs to allow any subscribed user to broadcast arbitrary content to a group of anonymous receivers. Exploiting the fact that the satellite downstream signal, containing the data requested by a user, is not only sent to this specific user only, but can be received in...

In this paper we present a method to realize geographic network traac simulation models. Our approach is based on a hierarchy of traac producing objects. It uses the polymor-phic concept of the object-oriented programming paradigm to realize a traac simulation model for traac sink, and sources with arbitrary properties. We used the method to develop a global traac model with hierarchical struct...