AI-Enabled Deployment Automation for 6G Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks: Challenges, Design, and Outlook

Combined with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks (SAGINs) play a crucial role in realizing the 6G vision of self-awareness, ubiquitous intelligence, and Internet of Everything (IoE). Compared with 5G, the 6G vision demands higher performance in key performance indexes (KPIs) such as peak data rate, user experience data rate, delay, coverage percentage, reliability, etc. And, the independent configuration and deployment of network functions through network deployment automation is essential for meeting these 6G KPIs. However, traditional deployment strategies lack flexibility and applicability, relying on manual intervention. To address this, we analyze the characteristics of various AI algorithms in 6G SAGINs and propose a federated learning (FL)-assisted deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework, which jointly optimizes deployment strategies through local and global collaboration. Case studies verify the effectiveness of this approach in improving network deployment automation and ensuring related KPIs in data management, resource allocation, and other tasks. Finally, we discuss the significant challenges that AI will face in deploying 6G SAGIN settings.

Introduction

The sixth-generation mobile communication standard (6G) is anticipated to be a comprehensive improvement of 10 to 100 times compared with 5G. Furthermore, 6G vision has higher requirements in key performance indexes (KPIs) such as peak data rate (>100 Gb/s), user experience data rate (>10 Gb/s), delay (<1 ms), coverage percent (>99%), reliability (%), and other aspects [1]. The Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks (SAGINs) is the key trend for enabling 6G deployment and realizing Internet of Everything (IoE) [2]. As shown in Fig. 1, 6G SAGIN is built upon terrestrial networks and expanded through satellite networks, encompassing space, air, land, ocean, etc., providing information guarantees for diverse user activities. In particular, the non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) [3], a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) initiative, aim to integrate satellite and air communications with the terrestrial network, enabling broader coverage to meet user access requirements. Therefore, the future wireless communications technology will make transformative improvements in quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE). At that time, emerging technologies such as Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs), Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Social Networks, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Holographic Projection, Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR), and so on will achieve breakthrough developments [4]. FIGURE 1.

6G space-air-ground integrated network architecture.