Frequency Resource Allocation Using Combined Evaluation Function in High Throughput Satellite Communication System

The resource allocation in high throughput satellites (HTSs) has been extensively investigated due to their payload ability to provide high-capacity and high-speed communication. To date, research has been conducted on variable beam arrangement using digital beamforming technology and on illumination patterns using beam hopping. In addition, there has been a great deal of research on flexible frequency resource allocation realized by digital channelizers. However, limited attention has been paid to a coordination of system throughput and fairness among user equipments (UEs) in these previous studies. In our previous paper, we proposed a frequency resource allocation model based on a beam-indexes-series finite Markov decision process. The policies of the resource allocation determined by a network operation center were only focused on maximizing either the number of allocated UEs or the system throughput. In this paper, we introduce a combined evaluation function that considers both the system throughput and the number of allocated UEs. This allows for the simultaneous optimization of communication capacity and fairness of communication opportunities. The superiority of the proposed resource allocation scheme and combined evaluation function is demonstrated through computational simulation in the comparison of the allocation scheme in the prior research. The operator is then able to coordinate the trade-off between system throughput and fairness among UEs.