Mobile Tasks in STIVNs: A Multi-hop-transmission Assisted On-demand Task Offloading Scheme

As 6G space-terrestrial integrated vehicular networks (STIVNs) technology advances, vehicles can efficiently complete a variety of computationally intensive tasks by off-loading them to various infrastructures (i.e., satellites and base stations). This allows vehicles to make use of the computational resources available in these infrastructures. Nevertheless, traditional task offloading schemes often restrict vehicles to offloading tasks solely to the infrastructure within their immediate communication coverage. This oversight disregards the potential availability of resources from infrastructures beyond. Consequently, this would result in the actual demands of vehicles being limited by the currently connected infrastructure. Furthermore, areas with high vehicle density within the coverage range may face resource inadequacies. Conversely, regions with low vehicle density within the coverage range may experience underutilization of resources. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper proposes an on-demand task offloading scheme in STIVNs. This scheme aims to fully leverage the mobility of vehicles and multi-hop transmission to effectively utilize computing resources across different infrastructures. Specifically, we comprehensively consider the resources of diverse infrastructures and the density of vehicles within their coverage ranges to provide task offloading services to vehicles with differentiated demands. By integrating vehicle mobility, multi-hop transmission, and matching games, we aim to select the optimal offloading strategy for each vehicle. Simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme outperforms the other three traditional schemes in terms of service satisfaction rate and utility of vehicles.