Load Balancing for 5G Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

We propose a load balancing algorithm for a multi-RAT (radio access technology) network including a non-terrestrial network (NTN) and a terrestrial network (TN). Fifth generation (5G) and beyond-5G networks consider NTNs to provide connectivity and data delivery to large numbers of user equipments (UEs). However, previous load balancing algorithms do not consider the coexistence of NTNs and TNs and ignore the different resource allocation units in a multi-RAT network. Hence, we define a radio resource utilization ratio (RRUR) as a common load metric to measure the cell load of each RAT and employ an adaptive threshold to determine overloaded cells. The proposed algorithm consists of two steps to overcome the uneven load distribution across 5G cells: intra-RAT load balancing and inter-RAT load balancing. Based on the RRUR of a cell, the algorithm first performs intra-RAT load balancing by offloading the appropriate edge UEs of an overloaded cell to underutilized neighboring cells. If the RRUR of the cell is still higher than a predefined threshold, then inter-RAT load balancing is performed by offloading the delay-tolerant data flows of UEs to a satellite link. Furthermore, the algorithm estimates the impact of moving loads to the target cell load to avoid unnecessary load balancing actions. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm not only distributes the load across terrestrial cells more evenly but also increases network throughput and the number of quality of service satisfied UEs more than previous load balancing algorithms.