Network Slice Admission Control and Resource Allocation in LEO Satellite Networks: A Robust Optimization Approach

Network slicing has become an essential technology for the future network. Obviously, it will play an important role in satellite networks as well. To address that quality of service (QoS) may be severely affected by embedding satellite virtual networks (SVNs), we propose a method for SVN admission control that can effectively guarantee the QoS of network slices by admitting SVNs embedded in the physical satellite networks. Specifically, firstly, we propose a two-stage SVN embedding mechanism that decouples short-term resource allocation from long-term admission control and resource leasing. Then, we consider the case of uncertain system capacity due to the highly dynamic nature of the satellite networks topology, and model the admission control problem as a robust optimization problem. The robust problem is transformed into a convex counterpart by using the Bernstein approximation. Finally, we solve the resource allocation problem by converting it into a convex problem. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

I. Introduction

The 6G requires the support of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) to facilitate ubiquitous and high-capacity global connectivity [1]. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in NTN provide an affordable solution for global coverage networks [2]. Therefore, the convergence of LEO satellite networks and terrestrial networks is an inevitable trend for B5G and even 6G to meet the growing demand [3].