Abstract: Ka-band communication is a hot topic in satellite communications, and the satellite ATM technology represents the research trends of wideband digital satellite communication networks. This paper studied the schemes of error-control coding in Ka-band satellite ATM systems. At first, we analyzed the characteristics of satellite communication systems and their impacts on the transfer of ATM cells, and then presented some simulation results about the cell loss ratio (CLR) under burst-error circumstances. To resolve the problem of high CLR, six kinds of error-control coding schemes are discussed and compared according to the property of Ka-band satellite communications. Among them, CASI/ALA and RM-Turbo schemes are better candidates.