Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks, characterized by their high data throughput and low latency, have gained significant interest from both industry and academia. Routing data efficiently within these networks is essential for maintaining a high quality of service. However, current routing strategies, such as bent-pipe and inter-satellite link (ISL) routing, have their unique challenges. The bent-pipe strategy requires a dense deployment of dedicated ground stations, while the ISL-based strategy can negatively impact satellite battery lifespan due to increased traffic load, leading to sustainability issues. In this paper, we propose sustainable collaborative offloading, a framework that orchestrates groups of existing commercial resources like ground stations and 5G base stations for data offloading. This orchestration enhances total capacity, overcoming the limitations of a single resource. We propose the collaborator group set construction algorithm to construct candidate groups and the collaborator selection and total payment algorithm to select offloading targets and determine payments no less than the costs. Extensive real-world-based simulations show that our solution significantly improves energy consumption, satellite service life, and end-to-end latency.

翻译：低地球轨道（LEO）卫星网络以其高数据吞吐量和低延迟特性，已引起工业界和学术界的广泛关注。在这些网络中高效路由数据对于维持高质量服务至关重要。然而，当前的路由策略，如弯管路由和星间链路（ISL）路由，均面临各自的独特挑战。弯管策略需要密集部署专用地面站，而基于ISL的策略则会因流量负载增加而对卫星电池寿命产生负面影响，从而引发可持续性问题。本文提出可持续协作卸载框架，该框架通过协调现有商用资源（如地面站和5G基站）组成协作组进行数据卸载。这种协调机制提升了总体容量，克服了单一资源的局限性。我们提出协作组集合构建算法以构建候选协作组，并设计协作方选择与总支付算法来选择卸载目标并确定不低于成本的支付方案。基于真实场景的大规模仿真表明，我们的方案在能耗、卫星服务寿命及端到端延迟方面均有显著改善。