This thesis presents a study of the application of satellite communication techniques for the establishment of Business communication networks. The characteristics of the traffic and its potential market in Western Europe is investigated. This is shown to be of a multiservice nature with the speech being a dominant source of traffic. It is however being indicated that videoconferencing could dominate the traffic mix and overshadow all other services. A Reservation Time Division Multiple Access (R-TDMA) protocol is hence developed to cater for this multiservice traffic. The basic protocol is designed to operate via a transparent satellite transponder. However an extension of the protocol is specifically designed to operate via a regenerative processing transponder. This is a R-TDMA with Free-Slots Contention (R-TDMA/FSC). Both protocol versions are modelled by Numerical Petri-Nets (NPN) and evaluated by computer simulations using the CSIM simulation system. Different network and operating conditions are simulated to test the performance of the protocols. They are shown to offer low delays, high throughputs and stable operation. An analytical model is used to validate these simulation models and results. The design of a second generation business satellite payload incorporating regenerative processing transponders is also carried out as part of the design of the Communications Engineering Research Satellite (CERS). This is shown to dramatically reduce the user earth station complexity and cost. The functional description of such an earth station is given that has the capability of running the earlier developed protocols.