Enabling Efficient Service Function Chains at Terrestrial-Satellite Hybrid Cloud Networks

The great improvements in both satellite and terrestrial networks have motivated the academic and industrial communities to rethink their integration. As a result, there is an increasing interest in new-generation hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks, where sufficient flexibility should be enabled to deploy customized SFCs to satisfy the growing diversity of user needs. However, it is still challenging to achieve such a nice vision, since many key issues remain unaddressed comprehensively such as framework design, communication procedures and resource optimization. Therefore, in this article, we focus on how to efficiently deploy customized SFCs at terrestrial- satellite hybrid cloud networks. In particular, we first propose an elastic framework used for SFC deployment at clouds, and second propose an efficient SFC mapping approach for improvement of system resource utilization. Finally, we verify the proposed framework at a proof-ofconcept prototype via a number of use cases, and evaluate the proposed mapping approach through extensive simulations based on a realworld topology. Related experimental and simulation results have confirmed the feasibility and benefits of our proposed framework and mapping approach.

Introduction

The integration of satellite and terrestrial networks has long been regarded as a promising approach for ubiquitous Internet access and multimedia service delivery [1]. However, constrained by technical and economic bottlenecks at that time, satellite communications were first applied to a number of specific fields such as emergency rescue and space exploration [2]. In recent years, with new advanced technologies emerging, satellites can provide high data throughput and serve as an important complement to terrestrial networks, especially in the upcoming 5G era [3]–[5].