An approach for reliably communicating over a satellite in support of a communication service including, for example, as direct broadcast satellite and data service, is disclosed. An input message is encoded, yielding a structured Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coded message. The coded message is modulated according to a high order modulation scheme that has a signal constellation representing more than two symbols per signaling point—e.g., 8-PSK (Phase Shift Keying) and 16-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation). The system includes a transmitter configured to propagate the modulated signal over the satellite. The above approach is particularly applicable to bandwidth constrained communication systems requiring high data rates.