A DRL-based RAQ-GERT dynamic resource allocation algorithm considering utility for multibeam satellite system

Abstract

With the evolution and popularity of smart devices, the demand and requirement (e.g., communication, file transfer) of satellite users have increased rapidly. Moreover, users have different preferences for services and the quality of service (QoS), like delay and throughput, which leads to user heterogeneity. Facing numerous, time-varying, and heterogeneous users, how to dynamically allocate limited spectrum and on-board power while satisfying user requirements is the major challenge for the multibeam satellite system (MSS). Aiming to seek a solution, firstly, the resource allocation queue graphical evaluation and review technique (RAQ-GERT) network is constructed to describe the service process of the MSS, as well as to compute the channel condition parameters during the whole process. Next, appropriate QoS indicators are selected based on user requirements. Then, QoS indicators are calculated from the results of the RAQ-GERT network, which are combined to form the optimization objective of the MSS by drawing on the Cobb–Douglas utility function. After that, guided by the utility of the MSS, the proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm is applied to explore the optimal resource allocation scheme in this heterogeneous user scenario. Finally, the simulation comparisons show that the proposed scheme has enhancements in several performances, up to 42.19 % in service rate, 53.58 % in system capacity, and 3.42 % in throughput with minimal increase in latency.