Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2023, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (3): 886-901.doi: 10.12305/j.issn.1001-506X.2023.03.31

• Communications and Networks • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Application of deep reinforcement learning in space information network——status quo and prospects

Siqi TANG1, Zhisong PAN1,*, Guyu HU1, Yang WU2, Yunbo LI1   

  1. 1. Command & Control Engineering College, Army Engineering University, Nanjing 210007, China
    2. Beijing Information and Communications Technology Research Center, Beijing 100036, China
  • Received:2021-09-23 Online:2023-02-25 Published:2023-03-09
  • Contact: Zhisong PAN

Abstract:

Space information network (SIN) will face challenges from its development trend of complex structure, dynamic environment, and diverse types of emerging applications. In this context, the data-driven deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods are introduced into SIN field as one of the promising solutions to cope with the aforementioned challenges. This paper firstly reviewed commonly used basic DRL methods in SIN field, with a comprehensive literature review of DRL-based SIN methods. Then, considering the relay selection in satellite-terrestrial network as an example, we propose an algorithm based on mean field DRL to address the large-scale issue. A model transfer mechanism based on finetune is proposed to solve the problem of data difference between simulation environment and real environment. Simulation result demonstrates that the proposed method can optimize network performance with acceptable computational complexity and time efficiency. Then the limitations and challenges of DRL in the field of SIN are summarized. Finally, based on frontier hotspots of DRL, we further provide insights into several future research directions in the context of DRL-based SIN methods.

Key words: space information network(SIN), deep reinforcement learning(DRL), relay selection, network performance optimization

CLC Number: 

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