A Cross-Domain SDN Architecture for Multi-Layered Space-Terrestrial Integrated Networks

The MLSTIN is considered as a powerful architecture to meet the heavy consumer demand for wireless data access in the coming 5G ecosystem. However, due to the inherent heterogeneity of MLSTIN, it is challenging to manage the diverse physical devices for large amounts of traffic delivery with optimal network performance. As promoted by the advantage of SDN, MLSTIN is expected to be a flexible paradigm to dynamically provision various applications and services. In light of this, a cross-domain SDN architecture that divides the MLSTIN into satellite, aerial, and terrestrial domains is proposed in this article. We discuss the design and implementation details of this architecture and then point out some challenges and open issues. Moreover, illustrative results validate that the proposed architecture can significantly improve the efficiencies of configuration updating and decision making in MLSTIN.