Policy-Driven Orchestration Framework for Multi-Operator Non-Terrestrial Networks

TL;DR

A weak-control-based orchestration framework that coordinates multiple NTN operators while ensuring that operations align with the policies of both the orchestrator and the individual operators is proposed, showing that inter-operator cooperation improves the availability of feasible end-to-end routes.

Abstract

Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) have gained significant attention for their scalability and wide coverage in next-generation communication systems. A large number of NTN nodes, such as satellites, are required to establish a global NTN, but not all operators have the capability to deploy such a system. Therefore, cooperation among multiple operators, facilitated by an orchestrator, enables the construction of virtually large-scale constellations. In this paper, we propose a weak-control-based orchestration framework that coordinates multiple NTN operators while ensuring that operations align with the policies of both the orchestrator and the individual operators. Unlike centralized orchestration frameworks, where the orchestrator determines the entire route from source to destination, the proposed framework allows each operator to select preferred routes from multiple candidates provided by the orchestrator. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed framework, we conducted numerical simulations under various scenarios and network configurations including dynamic NTN environments with time-varying topologies, showing that inter-operator cooperation improves the availability of feasible end-to-end routes. Furthermore, we analyzed the iterative negotiation process to address policy conflicts and quantitatively demonstrated the "price of autonomy," where strict individual policies degrade global feasibility and performance. The results also demonstrate that outcomes of the proposed framework depend on the operators' policies and that hop count and latency increase as the number of operators grows. These findings validate the proposed framework's ability to deliver practical benefits of orchestrated multi-operator collaboration in future NTN environments.

Figures (14)

• Figure 1: Conceptual diagram of orchestrating several constellations with a small number of satellites.
• Figure 2: Conceptual diagram of the centralized orchestration framework in this example. Each circle represents NTN nodes, e.g., satellites.
• Figure 3: The conceptual diagram of the proposed framework: (a) The information exchange between the orchestrator and the operators at each step. (b) The visualization of how the optimal route $\mathcal{R}^{*}$ is gradually derived from the initial set of candidate routes $\bm{\mathcal{R}}$ through the proposed three-step procedure. For simplicity, a set of route options is written by ellipses.
• Figure 4: The $\ell$-th route candidate focusing on $i$-th operator. This figure shows an example of passing through the $i$-th operator twice.
• Figure 5: Conceptual diagram of the proposed orchestration framework in this example.

Theorems & Definitions (1)

• Remark 1