# Satellite IoT Edge Intelligent Computing: A Research on Architecture
## 3 Satellite IoT Edge Intelligent Computing Architecture
### Satellite IoT Edge Computing  
The satellite Internet of Things can take advantage of emerging network technologies on the ground. In recent years, there have been studies on satellite IoT edge computing, considering the satellite's ever-increasing computing and storage capabilities, treating each satellite as an edge node, enabling on-orbit processing and minimizing the delay caused by satellite transmission [33; 34; 35]. This paper describes a cloud-edge layered satellite IoT edge computing paradigm. The hierarchical network of satellite IoT also needs to be supported by terrestrial data centers. Specifically, the cloud-edge stratified satellite IoT edge computing system consists of three parts: the satellite IoT cloud node, the satellite IoT edge node, and the ground data center. Figure 1 shows a cloud-edge layered satellite IoT edge computing system. The satellite IoT edge nodes have computing and storage capabilities and use a common virtualization platform that can deploy different services as needed. Satellite IoT edge nodes can communicate with each other, and satellite IoT edge nodes and satellite IoT cloud nodes can cooperate with each other. This can bring two benefits. First, satellite IoT edge nodes can request assistance from satellite IoT cloud nodes or ground data centers to offload their computing tasks to them. Second, satellite IoT edge nodes can also accept tasks from satellite IoT cloud nodes or terrestrial data centers, or establish fast service clusters with other satellite IoT edge nodes. The satellite IoT cloud node assumes the function of the satellite IoT data center, which is equivalent to the aggregation node of the satellite IoT edge node. Similarly, they can communicate with each other and connect the satellite IoT edge nodes to the ground data center. Satellite IoT cloud nodes have more powerful computing and storage capabilities than satellite IoT edge nodes. Satellite IoT cloud nodes are equipped with heterogeneous resources, such as CPU, GPU, and FPGA. It can not only handle various applications unloaded from satellite IoT edge nodes, but also complete task scheduling, task analysis, data fusion, intelligent distribution, and fast service cluster construction of the entire satellite network. The satellite IoT edge node and the satellite IoT cloud nodes are logically layered. But in reality, they won't be highly layered in space. Satellite IoT cloud nodes can operate on the same orbit as the satellite IoT edge nodes, or on geosynchronous orbits. It is similar to a mobile base station and acts as a group leader for a particular area, managing satellite IoT edge nodes. The satellite IoT edge node works in conjunction with the satellite IoT cloud node to maintain the normal operation of the satellite IoT. The ground data center has the capability of a large cloud computing center that can communicate with satellite IoT nodes or the ground Internet. Compared to satellite IoT nodes, the ground data centers have the highest computing power and the most storage resources. The satellite IoT edge node, the satellite IoT cloud node, and the ground data center constitute a three-layer computing architecture of the cloud-edge layered satellite IoT edge computing system. From the edge to the cloud, the computing power of each layer is gradually increasing. The task strength of each layer is as follows. Low-complexity computing can be performed on satellite IoT edge nodes. High-complexity and high real-time computing are suitable for implementation in satellite IoT cloud nodes. When the mission strength exceeds the satellite IoT's affordability, the mission will be passed to the ground data center. In particular, satellite IoT edge nodes and satellite IoT cloud nodes can implement network slicing through SDN/NFV technology. The data layer and the control layer of the satellite IoT are separated. The data layer can reflect the state of the current network, and the control layer can allocate network resources to implement network slicing.