Cooperative relay assisted load balancing scheme based on stackelberg game for hybrid GEO-LEO satellite network

Load balancing (LB) plays a key role in improving the performance of hybrid Geostationary Orbit (GEO)-Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network. Overload is very common in LEO satellite due to the non-uniform distribution load and the periodic satellite motion. A feasible approach to realize load balancing is that the terminals (destination nodes) served by LEO satellite hand over to GEO satellite. However, the direct links between GEO satellite and the destination nodes do not always have favorable channel condition. In order to avoid serious throughput degradation of destination nodes, a cooperative relay assisted load balancing scheme is proposed in this paper. Some mobile terminals (relay nodes) served by GEO satellite act as relays for the destination nodes and ask for payment from the destination nodes for cooperation transmission. Stackelberg game is adopted to optimize the strategies of destination nodes and relay nodes, in order to maximize their utility in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and payment, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is superior to the cooperative relay assisted LB without Stackelberg game scheme and the conventional direct transmission based LB scheme.