Apparatuses and methods for facilitating non-terrestrial network traffic scheduling via a combined cell

A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• identifying a load associated with communication services facilitated by satellites of a non-terrestrial network (NTN), resulting in a first identification;
• identifying a criticality of each communication service of the communication services, resulting in a second identification;
• arranging, based on the first identification and the second identification, a first plurality of base stations of a terrestrial network (TN) as part of a first combined cell, resulting in a first arrangement;
• determining a capacity of the satellites;
• and
• distributing a portion of a traffic load accommodated by the first plurality of base stations of the TN based on the capacity.

A method, comprising:

• organizing, by a processing system including a processor, a first plurality of base stations as part of a first combined cell;
• scheduling, by the processing system, first communications involving the first combined cell and at least a first satellite;
• determining, by the processing system and subsequent to the scheduling of the first communications, that demand for communication services exceeds a threshold, resulting in a first determination;
• determining, by the processing system and based on the first determination, a capacity of the at least a first satellite, resulting in a second determination;
• and
• distributing, by the processing system and based on the second determination, a portion of a traffic load accommodated by the first combined cell.