Minimizing Energy and Latency in LEOS-Assisted Open RAN Architecture Toward AI of Things

Artificial intelligence (AI) integration in communication is crucial for 6G. It optimizes terrestrial communication and computing resource usage in the Internet of Things (IoT) using AI techniques, such as supervised learning for data analysis and reinforcement learning for resource allocation. However, in remote areas, i.e., oceans and deserts, IoT devices lose connection due to limited terrestrial coverage. Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEOS) offers low-latency, high-bandwidth access in these unconnected regions. However, power and computing limitations on both IoT devices and LEOSs present challenges for continuous service. To this end, we present an LEOS-assisted open radio access network (RAN) Architecture (LO-RAN) where an RAN intelligence controller (RIC) is integrated to provide AI abilities. We formulate a joint Offloading decision, Path selection, and Resource allocation problem (OPR) to minimize the weighted energy consumption and latency of LO-RAN. We proposed a Joint Optimization for the Offloading decision, Path selection, and Resource allocation (JOOPR) algorithm. It selects contact and processing LEOSs for path selection, uses proximal policy optimization (PPO) for offloading decisions, and applies Karush-Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) to solve resource allocation. The outputs from path selection and resource allocation contribute to the reward that feeds into the PPO. We conduct numerical simulations to compare the proposed JOOPR with the state-of-the-art approaches. The results show that JOOPR reduces energy consumption and latency by at most 28.75% and 33.01%, respectively.