Optimal Strategy Routing in LEO Satellite Network Based on Cooperative Game Theory

Abstract

To overcome the network difficulty such as long propagation delay and traffic load imbalance when forwarding data packets through multiple hops in LEO satellite network, we propose an optimal strategy based routing algorithm for LEO satellite network using the cooperative game theory. With the idea of cooperation for mutual benefit, a LEO satellite node has the motivation of improving its own network performance gain by cooperation with neighbors to accomplish the multi-hop forwarding task of data packets. A satellite node compares the benefits of joining various routing coalitions, and tends to choose a more powerful next-hop coalition member node for data packet forwarding, which effectively distributes and balances the traffic load of the popular nodes. Such preference also improves the utilization of the satellite network resources, and reduces the average network delay of data packets. Our simulation results show that compared with the traditional satellite routing algorithms based on the shortest path, the average packet routing delay using the proposed algorithm is reduced by 18.5% and the traffic load balance of the network is increased by 65.6%. By replacing the shortest routing path with a path of satellite nodes with the expected optimal routing performance benefit, the proposed routing algorithm outperforms the existing algorithm on both the temporal and spatial network performance.