| Satellite communications (SATCOM) will be a critical and integral part of the future DoD Global Information Grid. Satellite communication systems will be needed to support inter- and intra-theater tactical communications, long-haul CONUS reach back communications, space and airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, strategic communications, command and control at various operational levels, and many other DoD communication requirements. At present, a number of future SATCOM systems are in development, such as the Advanced EHF System (AEHF), the Wideband Government System (WGS), the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), and the Transformational Satellite Communications (TSAT) System. This session consists of a number of papers dealing with various topics of interest in satellite communications. These contributions provide a sampling of active research and development efforts in this field with applications to potential emerging SATCOM systems, or to SATCOM systems in development. |
| Mario A. Blanco received his B.S. degree from Union College, Schenectady, NY, his M.S. from the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, all in Electrical Engineering. He is presently an Associate Section Leader in the Communications and Control Center at the MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA. Previously, he was with the Linkabit Corporation, Lexington, MA, and with the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Mario’s work is primarily in the area of satellite and wireless communications systems, and he leads a SATCOM engineering group which is involved in the development of next-generation MILSATCOM systems, from concept definition to architecture design and development. He is also a part-time faculty member in the Graduate School of Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Mario has many journal and conference publications in the areas of communication systems and information theory, and he is a member of the engineering honor societies Eta Kappa Nu, Phi Kappa Phi, and Tau Beta Pi. |