Resource Allocation and Orchestration of Slicing Services in Softwarized Space-Aerial-Ground Integrated Networks

Space-aerial-ground integrated networks (SAGIN) is gaining eye-catching attention in 6G research. Comparing with terrestrial networks, SAGIN guarantees to provide three-dimensional (3D), seamless connectivity, global coverage and high resource usage efficiency. In addition, network softwarization (NetSoft) is recognized as the crucial attribute of 6G networks. With softwarization, traditional dedicated hardware will be decoupled into software blocks and general-purpose hardware. Tailored service requests can be implemented in the forms of chained software blocks (also called as slices) and coexist on top of these general-purpose hardware. The softwarization scheme can enhance the resource utilization and service diversity. Though SAGIN and NetSoft are separately studied well, their joint research is still in its infancy. In this paper, we focus on the research of softwarized SAGIN and propose one novel resource allocation and orchestration framework, labeled as Slice-Soft-SAGIN. The goal of our Slice-Soft-SAGIN framework is to provide reliable and efficient slicing service in quasi-static state. When receiving one slicing service request, our Slice-Soft-SAGIN will conduct the first procedure of available resource checking. After successfully doing the resource checking, our Slice-Soft-SAGIN will turn to conducting the slicing resource allocation and orchestration from three ordered parts (terrestrial part, aerial part, and satellite part). Take note that resources considered in Slice-Soft-SAGIN belong to wireless (spectrum) and wired (computing and storage) types. In order to validate the Slice-Soft-SAGIN, we conduct the evaluation in the simulation form. Evaluation results are illustrated and analyzed.