Adaptive Open RAN Data Offloading in Low Earth Orbit Satellite Networks
The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) paradigm, with its open interfaces and intelligent functions, is a key enabler for next-generation wireless systems. We investigate the deployment of O-RAN-based network slice functions over Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities. To provide energy-efficient and low-latency services through distributed data processing, we formulate a slice function data offloading problem aimed at jointly optimizing end-to-end (E2E) latency and energy consumption. We model the problem as an MDP and propose a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based solution. The proposed DRL agent learns efficient offloading policies by balancing computation and communication costs in the dynamic satellite environment. Simulation results show that our DRL-based approach significantly outperforms conventional benchmarks, achieving enhanced latency and energy performance, enabling intelligent orchestration of O-RAN slices over LEO satellite networks.