Dynamic Service Migration Mechanism in Satellite Edge Computing with Location Privacy Protection

Satellite Edge Computing (SEC), which integrates communication and computation resources, has emerged as the critical infrastructure for global real-time services. Service migration is utilized to address challenges, such as user mobility, resource constraints on edge servers, and dynamic network environments. This technology enhances the quality of service by migrating services to satellites closer to mobile users. However, if an attacker intercepts the service data or migration trajectory between satellites, the user’s location can be precisely tracked, leading to a risk of location privacy leakage. This study explores dynamic service migration within the SEC scenario, which can protect user location privacy while maintaining high-quality services. We describe the service migration mechanism and define the system’s total cost as a combination of user-perceived latency, service migration cost, and the risk of location privacy leakage. For this multi-objective optimization problem, an improved Monte-Carlo control algorithm is utilized to determine the optimal migration strategy that minimizes the long-term total cost. Finally, simulations in an SEC environment demonstrate that the proposed algorithm effectively protects user location privacy while achieving lower costs than baseline algorithms.