Policy-Driven Orchestration Framework for Multi-Operator Non-Terrestrial Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a weak-control orchestration framework for multi-operator non-terrestrial networks that enables cooperation while respecting individual policies, improving route availability and demonstrating trade-offs between autonomy and performance.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, decentralized orchestration framework allowing operators to select preferred routes, balancing cooperation with policy autonomy in NTN environments.

Findings

Inter-operator cooperation increases feasible route availability.

The framework's effectiveness varies with operator policies.

More operators lead to higher hop count and latency.

Abstract

Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) have gained significant attention for their scalability and wide coverage in next-generation communication systems. A large number of NTN nodes, such as satellites, are required to establish a global NTN, but not all operators have the capability to deploy such a system. Therefore, cooperation among multiple operators, facilitated by an orchestrator, enables the construction of virtually large-scale constellations. In this paper, we propose a weak-control-based orchestration framework that coordinates multiple NTN operators while ensuring that operations align with the policies of both the orchestrator and the individual operators. Unlike centralized orchestration frameworks, where the orchestrator determines the entire route from source to destination, the proposed framework allows each operator to select preferred routes from multiple candidates provided by the orchestrator. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed framework, we conducted numerical simulations under various scenarios and network configurations including dynamic NTN environments with time-varying topologies, showing that inter-operator cooperation improves the availability of feasible end-to-end routes. Furthermore, we analyzed the iterative negotiation process to address policy conflicts and quantitatively demonstrated the "price of autonomy," where strict individual policies degrade global feasibility and performance. The results also demonstrate that outcomes of the proposed framework depend on the operators' policies and that hop count and latency increase as the number of operators grows. These findings validate the proposed framework's ability to deliver practical benefits of orchestrated multi-operator collaboration in future NTN environments.