Matching Game for Intelligent Resource Management in Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

Integrated satellite-terrestrial networks (ISTNs) provide a novel networking paradigm for achieving all-time, seamless and global coverage, attracting considerable research attention lately. Sixth-generation (6G) communication networks will also expect ISTNs to support countless emerging missions with different requirements. To this end, in the dynamic and complex ISTN environment, intelligent and efficient multidimensional resource management strategies (transmission and computation resources) are critical in limited resource situations. A matching game - a suitable tool to model the cooperation and strategic interaction of missions and resources - provides a potential solution to address these challenges. In this article, we first discuss the requirements and challenges of multidimensional resource management problems in ISTNs. Next, we introduce the definition, classifications and applications of the matching game. Based on the matching game, we propose an intelligent mission-resource, two-sided matching (MRTM) framework, and present a MRTM-based multidimensional resource management strategy. Finally, we provide an example to illustrate how to apply the MRTM framework. The simulation results are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.