Towards Global Metaverse Accessibility with RSMA-based Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks: A Game Theoretic Approach

Satellite-terrestrial integrated networks (STINs) are considered an important communication technology for global metaverse accessibility. Driven by fast-growing global demand for metaverse accessibility, existing satellite communication systems cannot fulfill user rate requests. Rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) technology has an excellent ability to improve spectral efficiency and user rate, which is a promising solution for future STINs. However, the resource allocation problem has not been fully resolved in RSMA-based STINs, particularly when user incentives are involved. In this study, the resource allocation problem with the downlink sum rate maximization objective in RSMA-based STINs is investigated in both single-satellite and multiple-satellites scenarios, and a game theoretic approach that considers user incentives is proposed. In the single-satellite scenario, a distributed best response-based power allocation algorithm is proposed to allocate power to common and private sub-messages. In the multiple-satellites scenario, a swap-matching game-based user association algorithm is proposed to associate ground users with satellites for a stable matching outcome. The proposed algorithms are evaluated in numerical experiments, and the results demonstrate that the proposed game theoretic solutions outperform baselines, including fixed power allocation and random user association schemes, achieving near-optimal performance with the ideal full participation case, showing a promising solution for global metaverse accessibility.