In this paper, a candidate satellite radio interface, satellite orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (SAT-OFDM), for the satellite component of IMT-Advanced is presented. The SAT-OFDM is based on long term evolution (LTE) terrestrial radio interface for maximum commonality with IMTAdvanced terrestrial radio interface. This paper deals with the configuration and performance of the 3GPP LTE based satellite radio interface. And then, as an enhancement of the satellite-specific radio interface, it addresses the possible adaptation of 3GPP LTE to the satellite in order to maximize the performance over satellite link.