Virtualized and Micro Services Provisioning in Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks

Abstract

In this article, we justify an online service provisioning (OSP) framework to provision virtualized and micro service (VMS) to users, which can achieve efficient, flexible, and scalable service provisioning. Compared to the onboard service provisioning framework, the system bottleneck shifts from the onboard computation limitation to the network capability and robustness in OSP, which the space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN) can ably support. First, the motivations of OSP and VMS per the current mobile application industry are identified. Then we investigate the capabilities of the SAGIN to enable the OSP framework, where the evolution of the terrestrial network, on-demand deployment of an aerial network, and global coverage with a satellite network are reviewed. Afterward, we elaborate on three major techniques of VMS provisioning in the OSP framework: application decomposition, control protocol design, and microservice placement/replacement. Finally, we design and implement a case study to demonstrate the efficacy of provisioning VMS in OSP.