To meet the communication requirements in the upcoming century, global personal communication networks (PCNs) have become one of the hottest topics in the field of communications. An important and fundamental question in such plans is which system meets all those requirements. Current cellular systems, although they have good potential for providing voice and data communications in urban areas, would not be a proper choice for a global system. On the other hand, in accordance with the research for satellite communication systems, there has been a widespread desire to set up a single global communication system by satellites, which may be the only solution for the globalization of communications networks.

Although established in 2005, SATLAB is a very experienced research laboratory, bringing together faculty members with high academic skills and years of practice in the fields of satellite networks, wireless and computer communications, network security as well as digital signal, image and video processing. SATLAB's mission is to merge the motivation and experience of its members to create one of the finest satellite network research groups in Europe. Currently, 7 PhD and 10 MS students are associated with SATLAB. Technical reports, academic publications written and detailed satellite network prototypes developed by this laboratory will address the needs of govermental institutions, such as the Turkish armed forces (TSK), the Turkish radio-television corporation (TRT) and the Turkish satellite communication company (TURKSAT), as well as a number of private companies.

The primary goal of SATLAB is to achieve long-lasting integration of the research in satellite communications and to develop a common base of knowledge, thus contributing to the realization of the state-of-the-art satellite research.

SATLAB is funded by the State Planning Organization of Turkey (DPT) .