Communications satellites have been the primary mission from the early period of Japanese space development and their on-board communication equipment are the core devices to realize satellite communications systems. The technologies for this equipment have been developed to meet the requirements of high capacity and high functionality under the severe satellite-imposed constraints. This paper summarizes progress in on-board communication equipment technologies developed and verified by using Engineering Test Satellites and commercial satellites in Japan and describes their prospects.

A "dual-ring" network configuration is proposed in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) metropolitan area network (MAN). In the proposed architecture, a "sub-ring" using two fibers is added to the existing metropolitan WDM ring for flexible and cost effective addition of new nodes.

A simulation model for natural convection was developed for determining the surface temperature distribution in base plates with rectangular vertical fins in communication equipment. An estimated velocity derived from the buoyancy and pressure drop equations in a duct was used for laminar forced convection cooling simulations in parallel plates. Temperature distributions in finned plates were calculated by numerical integration of the heat conduction equation. An experimental study was also performed, to check these simulation results, by changing the height of fins, the pitch of fins, and the heat generation conditions. Experimental results and analytical results were found to agree well. Also, this simulation method was extended to analyze natural convection cooling in vertical base plates with inclined parallel fins. We placed alternately on the plates the sections without fins and the sections with fins on the plates. Using the inclined fins, air flow rate between fins was large and fresh air flew into the fins from the side of the plates. The natural convective heat-transfer rate for inclined fins was found to be 14% higher than that for vertical fins.

It has become very important to study the lightning surges that were induced in subscriber telecommunication equipment because of the increase of susceptible circuits to the over voltage. The test generator is desire to be developed evaluating the resistibility of equipments against lightning surges. This paper proposes a new lightning-test method for subscriber telecommunication equipment. The waveform of the test generator simulates that of the induced lightning surge voltage caused by a nearby return stroke. The output impedance of the surge generator is determined to match the common-mode impedance of telecommunication lines. The damaged condition of circuit parts and the trouble occurrence rate estimated by using this method agree well with actual observations.