Jointly Optimal Routing and Resource Allocation in Hybrid Satellite/Terrestrial Networks

In the future hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks, efficient routing at network layer and allocation of resources at link layer will have to be performed in order to satisfy traffic requests and minimizing at the same time the cost of the allocated bandwidth among the heterogeneous network components. This simultaneous routing and resource allocation (SRRA) problem can be specified in the framework of network utility maximization (NUM) theory, according to which each layer of the communication network corresponds to a decomposed subproblem of a global optimization problem, and the interfaces among layers are represented as functions of the optimization variables coordinating the subproblems. These sets of variables are associated by specific restrictions. Since the solution of the SRRA problem directly requires coordination among possibly all sources, thus it is impractical in real networks, we propose a decentralized and distributed solution which is based on the Lagrange dual decomposition method and allows defining a bandwidth-related pricing strategy