This second edition of Satellite Communications is a revised, updated, and improved version of the first edition (Van Nostrand, 1984) and has been extended to include many newer topics that are rapidly becoming important in modem and next-generation satellite systems. The first half of the book again covers the basics of satellite links, but has been updated to include additional areas such as Global Positioning and deep space satellites, dual polarization, multiple beaming, advanced satellite electronics, frequency synthesizers, and digital frequency generators. The second half of the book is all new, covering frequency and beam hopping, on-board processing, EHF and optical cross­ links, and mobile satellites and VSAT systems. All of these latter topics figure to be important aspects of satellite systems and space platforms of the twenty-first century. As in the first edition, the objective of the new edition is to present a unified approach to satellite communications, helping the reader to become familiar with the terminology, models, analysis procedures, and evolving design directions for modem and future satellites. The presentation stresses overall system analysis and block diagram design, as opposed to complicated mathematical or physics descriptions. (Backup mathematics is relegated to the appendices where a reader can digest the detail at his own pace. ) The discussion begins with the simplest satellite systems and builds to the more complex payloads presently being used.