SYMPOSIUM ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS
SATELLITE AND SPACE COMMUNICATIONS

Symposium Chair
Claudio Sacchi, University of Trento (sacchi@disi.unitn.it)

Sponsoring Technical Committee
Satellite and Space Communications

Scope
In this first decade of XXI century, satellite communications just arrived to the "turning point" of their development. The era of satellite as "global coverage repeater" announced by the prophetic paper of Sir Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 is going to be concluded. The future of satellite communications can be framed "like a picture" inside a crucial question: "What will the role of satellite be in the context of the evolution of future digital communications?" The answer to this question is not trivial. Now, we can say that the use of satellite should be related to an increasing requirement of users for a "global broadband wireless mobility" that nowadays is not fully guaranteed by terrestrial wireless networks. In such a framework, the role of satellite will not be longer regarded as "backup" or "coverage extension", rather an additional active "gateway in the sky" targeted to guarantee connectivity to wider and wider user communities. The integration with terrestrial wireless networks will be a key issue in this renewed view, as well as the convergence of satellite technologies for data transmission with terrestrial networking standards. Another very challenging aspect of future satellite communications should be related to the reduction of "Digital Divide", mainly in developing countries, but also in wide areas of the developed world still not reached by terrestrial networking (wireless and/or wired) infrastructures. In order to reach such ambitious objectives, a clear step-ahead with respect to state-of-the-art is needed in terms of novel transmission techniques, improved protocol design explicitly targeted to satellite networking, deployment of innovative and cost-effective satellite networking architectures, provision of added-value services and applications meeting user requirements. The Satellite and Space Communications track of the SAC symposium is targeted at exploring and discussing the aforesaid issues, focusing on all the main aspects related to satellite networking and applications.

Topics of Interest

• Air Interface over Satellite Networks
      -  Adaptive coding modulation for satellite communication networks
      -  Fading countermeasures over satellite networks
      -  Satellite channel management
      -  Power and bandwidth allocation solutions over satellite networks
      -  Emerging standards: DVB-S2, DVB-RCS, IP over Satellite
      -  RF design for satellite communications
      -  Spread Spectrum and multicarrier techniques for satellite communications
      -  Software radio for satellite communications
  
• Internetworking, Architecture, Protocols and Applications in Satellite Networks
      -  PEP architectures and solutions
      -  QoS-oriented solutions for DVB-S2, DVB-RCS, IP over satellite
      -  Satellite dependent (SD) and satellite independent (SI) solutions and interfaces in satellite gateways
      -  Satellite gateways optimization algorithms
      -  Security in satellite and hybrid networks
      -  New protocols for delay tolerant networks
      -  Deep-space communications
      -  Gigabit connectivity via satellite
      -  Convergence and integration among satellite networks and terrestrial wireless networks
      -  Satellite technology for mobile services
      -  Satellite communications and "Digital Divide" issues
      -  Satellite navigation systems
  
• Control and Algorithms for Satellite Networks
      -  Satellite network control and management
      -  Control architectures and algorithms for satellite and heterogeneous internetworking
      -  Control schemes for resource allocation over satellite channels
  

Technical Program Committee

Rafael Asorey-Cacheda, Universidad de Vigo
Matteo Berioli, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Igor Bisio, University of Genoa
Periklis Chatzimisios, TEI of Thessaloniki
Giovanni Emanuele Corazza, University of Bologna
Franco Davoli, University of Genoa
Tomaso De Cola, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Alban Duverdier, Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
Istvan Frigyes, Budapest University of Technologies
Thierry Gayraud, Toulouse University of Science, LAAS-CNRS
Giovanni Giambene, University of Siena
Stefano Giordano, University of Pisa
David Grace, University of York
Yim-Fun Hu, University of Bradford
Antonio Iera, University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria
Mario Marchese, DIST- University of Genoa
Mohamed Moustafa Abd-El Aziz Moustafa, Arab Information Union, AIU
Hamid Nafaa, University College Dublin
Francesco Potortì, ISTI-CNR
Gianluca Reali, University of Perugia
Sandro Scalise, DLR (German Aerospace Center)
Gonzalo Seco Granados, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Petia Todorova, Fraunhofer-FOKUS
Ljiljana Trajkovic, Simon Fraser University
Alessandro Vanelli-Coralli, University of Bologna
Ruhai Wang, Lamar University
Kainam Thomas Wong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Takaya Yamazato, Nagoya University

Presentation Style
The Globecom 2009 Technical Program Committee will go through a rigorous process to review all the papers submitted and select the best ones among them. The accepted papers will be presented in the conference either in a lecture style or in a poster style format. This distinction has no relationship with the quality of the accepted papers whatsoever. It is purely due to the limitations of the conference rooms available for lecture style presentations. Papers will be selected for lecture-style or poster-style presentation, solely based on the need to ensure topic homogeneity in lecture-style sessions.   All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and IEEExplore without any indication of the presentation mode.