This conference volume contains the papers of the working conference 'Data Networks and Satellites', held on September 20th and 21st, 1982, in Cologne. The conference was performed by the interest group 'Computer Net- w 0 r k s " j us t founded by the co mm itt e e 3/4 of the G e sell s c h aft fUr Informatik (GI) and the committees 6, 9, and 12 of the Nachrichten- technische Gese11schaft (NTG). It was hosted by the Deutsche For- sChungs- und Versuchsansta1t fUr Luft- und Raumfahrt at Cologne. The idea of the conference was to bring together experts from satel- lite communication research and development, from telecommunication authorities and from the user community. The fast evolution of sa- tellites designed to be used for new data communication services in- fluences the necessity to exchange the present knowledge on chances, challenges, and problems of future satellite based data communication systems and services. Within this young te1ematics discipline only few groups in Europe can report on extensive experiences. Therefore we are glad that some of the most advanced activities and plans in Europe could be presented here at their current status.
Some rather valuable information has been transferred during the in- tensive discussions, and we try to summarize some important aspects of each session within the volume in hand.