Scalable Security and Migration-Aware SFC Provisioning in LEO Satellite Networks

2026-07-01

AI Summary

This work addresses the co-location security risks and frequent migration challenges arising from dynamic topologies in LEO satellite networks when deploying multi-tenant, security-aware service function chains (SFCs) over shared onboard resources. The proposed approach distinguishes, for the first time, between mandatory migrations caused by orbital dynamics and avoidable ones, and introduces a co-location risk model grounded in ISO/NIST principles. The problem is formulated as a multi-tenant mixed-integer linear program. To enhance scalability while ensuring security isolation, a slice-level ADMM decomposition mechanism with penalty terms is developed, integrated with sequential-parallel scheduling and collision-resolution strategies. Simulations on a Walker-Delta constellation demonstrate that the solution completely eliminates co-location risks, significantly reduces migration frequency, meets end-to-end latency constraints, and efficiently supports large-scale tenant slices within per-period resource budgets.

Abstract

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are emerging as a backbone for global 6G connectivity, where independent tenant slices share orbital infrastructure, each requiring an ordered chain of security virtual network functions (VNFs). Because onboard computation and networking are scarce, slices cannot be given dedicated VNFs. They must share instances on the same satellites, enlarging the attack surface and exposing tenants to cross-slice side-channel risk. This exposure shifts continually as visibility, orbital motion, and the inter-satellite topology change in time (epochs), making VNF migration a structural necessity that couples resource efficiency, service continuity, and security isolation into a single problem. We formulate this security- and migration-aware security function chain (SFC) placement as a multi-slice mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) whose core is a co-location risk model, grounded in ISO/NIST principles and supported by analytic bounds, in which we separate avoidable migrations from those forced by orbital motion. Because the joint program scales quadratically with the cross-slice co-location terms, we develop an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM)-inspired penalized per-slice best response decomposition that recasts the coupling as a linear per-slice penalty, yielding independent subproblems through sequential (S-ADMM) and parallel, collision-repaired (P-ADMM) schedules. Simulations over a Walker-Delta satellite constellation show that the proposed framework eliminates co-location risk, reduces SFC migrations, and sustains full delay compliance, while remaining feasible within the per-epoch budget for slice counts where the monolithic security-aware MILP is intractable.

Problem

• LEO satellite networks
• security function chain
• VNF co-location risk
• slice isolation
• service migration

Innovation

• Security-aware SFC
• VNF migration
• Co-location risk
• ADMM decomposition
• LEO satellite networks