A Survey on VNF Placement and Traffic Routing in LEO Satellite Networks

초록

The deployment of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites has emerged as a key enabler for diverse service and has attracted significant research attention. Among these, VNF Placement and Traffic Routing (VPTR) has been studied. However, VPTR remains challenging because placement decisions constrain feasible routes, while routing decisions influence the utilization of deployed VNFs. To address this problem, existing studies are classified into centralized and distributed approaches, reflecting a trade-off between throughput and the load of information exchange. These considerations motivate hybrid VPTR as the natural direction and this survey organizes the evidence behind that intuition.