CONTENTS

 1 Introduction
        1.1 Frequency considerations
        1.2 Generic mission parameters
2 Link considerations
        2.1 Link performance
                  2.1.1 BER
                  2.1.2 Margin requirement
        2.2 Modulation
        2.3 Received signal
        2.4 Link losses
        2.5 Transmit/receive telescope parameters
                  2.5.1 Diameter
                  2.5.2 Transmitting gain pattern
                  2.5.3 Receiving gain pattern
        2.6 Pointing and tracking
3 Signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)
        3.1 Detector noise