The majority of this book concentrates on satellite communication systems from a satellite communication engineering perspective. This Chapter addresses the issue from an overall network perspective in order to clarify what the network (and its services) expects from satellites and the implications which satellites have for network design. The Chapter will be primarily concerned with main network services (such as telephony) where satellites have to compete/integrate with terrestrial facil ities, rather than independent/specialised networks (such as broadcast television using satellites) where the characteristics of satellites are built into the service offering. Analogue, PDH and SDH transmission, leased and switched analogue and ISDN services, and ATM transport will be considered. Certain network-specific equipment is also covered (for example, DCME).

Inspec keywords: synchronous digital hierarchy; asynchronous transfer mode; satellite communication; ISDN

Other keywords: SDH transmission; plesiochronous digital hierarchy transmission; network-specific equipment; satellite communication system; switched analogue service; ISDN service; integrated services digital network service; leased analogue service; asynchronous transfer mode transport; PDH transmission; ATM transport; synchronous digital hierarchy transmission; satellite network design; satellite communication engineering perspective; analogue transmission

Subjects: Satellite communication systems