To satisfy the explosive access demands of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, various kinds of multiple access techniques have received much attention. In this article, we investigate the multicast communication of a satellite and aerial-integrated network (SAIN) with rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA), where both satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) components are controlled by network management center and operate in the same frequency band. Considering a content delivery scenario, the UAV subnetwork adopts the RSMA to support massive access of IoT devices (IoTDs) and achieve desired performances of interference suppression, spectral efficiency, and hardware complexity. We first formulate an optimization problem to maximize the sum rate of the considered system subject to the signal-interference-plus-noise-ratio requirements of IoTDs and per-antenna power constraints at the UAV and satellite. To solve this nonconvex optimization problem, we exploit the sequential convex approximation and the first-order Taylor expansion to convert the original optimization problem into a solvable one with the rank-one constraint, and then propose an iterative penalty function-based algorithm to solve it. Finally, simulation results verify that the proposed method can effectively suppress the mutual interference and improve the system sum rate compared to the benchmark schemes.

In this paper, we investigate secrecy-energy efficient hybrid beamforming (BF) schemes for a satellite-terrestrial integrated network, wherein a multibeam satellite system shares the millimeter wave spectrum with a cellular system. Under the assumption of imperfect angles of departure for the wiretap channels, the hybrid beamformer at the base station and digital beamformers at the satellite are jointly designed to maximize the achievable secrecy-energy efficiency, while satisfying signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio constraints of both the earth stations (ESs) and cellular users. Since the formulated optimization problem is nonconvex and mathematically intractable, we propose two robust BF schemes to obtain approximate solutions with low complexity. Specifically, for the case of a single ES, we integrate the Charnes-Cooper approach with an iterative search algorithm to convert the original nonconvex problem into a solvable one and obtain the BF weight vectors. In the case of multiple ESs, by exploiting the sequential convex approximation method, we convert the original problem into a linear one with multiple matrix inequalities and second-order cone constraints, for which we obtain a solution with satisfactory performance. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed robust BF design schemes are validated via simulations using realistic satellite and terrestrial downlink channel models.

In this paper, we propose a joint optimization design for a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based satellite-terrestrial integrated network (STIN), where a satellite multicast communication network shares the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum with a cellular network employing NOMA technology. By assuming that the satellite uses multibeam antenna array and the base station employs uniform planar array (UPA), we first formulate a constrained optimization problem to maximize the sum rate of the STIN while satisfying the constraint of per-antenna transmit power and quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of both satellite and cellular users. Since the formulated optimization problem is NP-hard and mathematically intractable, we develop a novel user pairing scheme so that more than two users can be grouped in a cluster to exploit NOMA technique. Based on the user clustering, we further propose to transform the non-convex problem into an equivalent convex one, and present an iterative penalty function based beamforming (BF) scheme to obtain the weight vectors and power coefficients with fast convergence. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach in comparison with the existing works.

This paper investigates the physical layer security of a satellite network, whose downlink spectral resource is shared with a terrestrial cellular network. We propose to employ a multi-antenna base station (BS) as a source of green interference to enhance secure transmission in the satellite network. By taking the mutual interference between these two networks into account, we first formulate a constrained optimization problem to maximize the instantaneous rate of the terrestrial user while satisfying the interference probability constraint of the satellite user. Then, with the assumption that imperfect channel state information (CSI) and statistical CSI of the link between the BS and satellite user are available at the BS, we present two beamforming (BF) schemes, namely, hybrid zero-forcing and partial zero-forcing to solve the optimization problem and obtain the BF weight vectors in a closed form. Moreover, we analyze the secrecy performance of primary satellite network by considering two practical scenarios, namely: Scenario I, the eavesdroppers CSI is unknown at the satellite and Scenario II, the eavesdroppers CSI is known at the satellite. Specifically, we derive the analytical expressions for the secrecy outage probability for Scenario I and the average secrecy rate for Scenario II. Finally, numerical results are provided to confirm the superiority of the proposed BF schemes and the validity of the performance analysis, as well as demonstrate the impacts of various parameters on the secrecy performance of the satellite network.

Rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) has recently received considerable attention due to its high efficiency in both spectral utilization and energy consumption. Inspired by this emerging technique, this paper presents a secure beamforming (BF) scheme for RSMA-based cognitive satellite terrestrial networks in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. Assuming that the system operates in the millimeter wave band and only imperfect wiretap channel state information is available at the satellite and terrestrial base station, our objective is to maximize the secrecy-energy efficiency of the earth station (ES) while meeting the constraints on the ES secrecy rate, the cellular users’ rate requirements, and transmit power budgets of the satellite and base station. As the formulated optimization problem is mathematically intractable, by applying successive convex approximation and Taylor expansion methods, we propose a robust BF scheme to convert the nonconvex objective and constraints into convex ones, which can be iteratively solved. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed scheme are confirmed through simulation results.

In this paper, we investigate a satellite-aerial integrated edge computing network (SAIECN) to combine a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite and aerial high altitude platforms (HAPs) to provide edge computing services for ground user equipment (GUE). In the SAIECN, GUE’s computing tasks can be offloaded to HAP(s) or LEO satellite. In this paper, we minimize the weighted sum energy consumption of SAIECN via joint GUE association, multi-user multiple input and multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmit precoding, computation task assignment, and resource allocation. To solve the nonconvex problem, we decompose the optimization problem into four subproblems and solve each one iteratively. For the GUE association subproblem, quadratic transform based fractional programming (QTFP) and difference of convex function are utilized. The MU-MIMO transmit precoding subproblem is solved via QTFP and the weighted minimum mean-squared method. The computation task assignment is addressed using the classic interior point method while the computation resource allocation is derived in closed form. The numerical results show that the proposed SAIECN and the corresponding algorithm can solve the satellite based edge computing quite well and the energy cost is maintained at a relative low level.