MIT Lincoln Laboratory is open.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is open.

Hanscom Air Force Base has declared Force Protection Condition Bravo.

Yes

The Multi-band Test Terminal on the a rooftop of a Lincoln laboratory building enables the testing of waveforms and techniques for antijam protection for satellite communications.

Tactical Satellite Communications

Our group develops innovative architectures for next-generation satellite communications (SATCOM) systems. We perform systems engineering on test beds and operational prototypes to enhance capabilities of communications satellites. Researchers in this group design waveforms that more efficiently use the frequency spectrum, which can prove crucial in military SATCOM. We also develop adaptive antenna beamforming and signal processing techniques to improve system performance.

A prototype reflectarray faces a feed horn in an anechoic chamber.

communications

Mitigating cellular network congestion through adaptive beamforming with reflectarrays

A low-cost, reconfigurable radio receiver architecture provides an alternative approach to filter out unwanted transmissions in millimeter-wave (MMW) signals.

Photo of researchers launching the weather balloons

communications

Balloon-Based Resilient Communications

High-altitude balloons used as beyond-line-of-sight relays would provide communications nodes if satellite communications could not offer coverage in contested environments.

Lincoln Laboratory personnel Joseph Zurkus, left, and Jacob Huang, right, operate a protected tactical waveform modem and collect data while Ted O'Connell, back, monitors terminal equipment during flight testing.

satellite communications (SATCOM)

Protected Antijam Tactical SATCOM

Satellite communications technologies enable the U.S. military to maintain connectivity in the field.

Two people talk at a poster presentation session.

Lincoln Laboratory hosts 14th annual Communications Workshop

Aug 19

Engineers inspect LES-1 prior to its 1965 launch. The satellite is positioned atop a Titan III rocket on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

A satellite signals after 45 years of radio silence

Jun 12

The 38-foot-wide radome protecting the Multi-Band Test Terminal — a large antenna on an MIT Lincoln Laboratory building rooftop — is shown illuminated at night.

Antenna enables advanced satellite communications testing

Aug 29

Don't be intimidated by MIT or think that you don't belong here because you don't have a technical background.

Megan Bliss

Group Administrative Assistant

Communication Systems

Tactical Satellite Communications

An outdoor portrait photograph of Megan Bliss.

At the Laboratory, I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with others who are diligent and seek insight into problems.

Swaroop Appadwedula

Signal Processing Researcher

Communication Systems

Tactical Satellite Communications

A photo of Swaroop Appadwedula.

May

19 - 20

Lincoln Laboratory Communications Workshop (LLCW) 2026

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts

Capacity bounds for frequency-hopped BPSK

Nov 29

2021 IEEE Military Communications Conf., MILCOM, 29 November - 2 December 2021.

Application of complex split-activation feedforward networks to beamforming

Oct 31

55th Asilomar Conf. on Signals, Systems and Computers, ACSSC, 31 October - 3 November 2021.

Distributed multi-modal sensor system for searching a foliage-covered region

Apr 28

2011 IEEE Conf. on Technologies for Practical Robot Applications (TePRA), 28 April 2011, pp. 7-14.

More Publications

Flight Test Facility

Flight Test Facility

Twenty-five members part of the development team for the Multi-Band Test Terminal and Protected Anti-Jam Tactical SATCOM gather inside the antenna's radome.

Multi-Band Test Terminal

More Facilities