T he growth of demand for broadband has been seen in satellite communications as it has in other aspects of the market. Satellites carry media content around the globe, which includes satellite television, radio, and broadband services directly to consumers. Satellite communications also allows for mobile or nomadic voice and data globally. They are also criti- cal to disaster recovery and emergency preparedness, providing critical communications following natural disasters. While the sole application of some satel- lites is the distribution of data, all satellites require Rudy Emrick, Pedro Cruz, Nuno B. Carvalho, Steven Gao, Rüdiger Quay, and Patrick Waltereit Rudy Emrick (rudyemrick@ieee.org) is with Orbital Sciences, Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Pedro Cruz (pcruz@av.it.pt) and Nuno B. Carvalho (nbcarvalho@ua.pt) are with the Instituto de Telecomunicações DETI, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. Steven Gao (s.gao@kent.ac.uk) is with the University of Kent, United Kingdom. Rüediger Quay (Rüediger.Quay@iaf.fraunhofer.de) and Patrick Waltereit are with the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Solid-State Physics. FOCUSED ISSUE FEATURE PHOTO COURTESY OF ORBITAL SCIENCES March/April 2014 65 1527-3342/14/$31.00©2014IEEE Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2013.2296212 Date of publication: 7 March 2014