A Hybrid Offline and Online Resource Allocation Algorithm for Multibeam Satellite Communication Systems

Multibeam satellite communication systems have received extensive attentions in recent years. By generating multiple spot beams at the transmitter of satellites, high-bandwidth connectivity to specific geographic areas can be achieved. In this paper, the joint beam illumination and resource allocation problem is studied for multibeam satellite communication systems. To address the different resource management granularity levels in the considered multibeam satellite system, we propose a hybrid offline and online resource management algorithm. Specifically, a two-step offline user grouping scheme is proposed under beam coverage and maximum user number constraints. Then, based on the obtained user grouping strategy, the online beam illumination and time-frequency resource allocation problem is studied. To this end, we jointly consider the revenue received from successful packet transmission and the energy consumption of the satellites due to data transmission, and define a system utility function. The problem of joint beam illumination and resource allocation is then formulated as a constrained utility function maximization problem. To solve the optimization problem, we introduce aggregate users (AUs) to represent the service requirements and the transmission characteristics of individual user groups, and design a proportional fairness and virtual Kuhn-Munkres-based beam illumination strategy for the AUs. Given the obtained beam illumination strategy of user groups, a two-level prioritizing scheme is proposed for the GUs and a priority and greedy-based algorithm is designed to assign time and frequency resources to the GUs. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.