  In the context of 6th generation (6G) networks, vehicular edge computing
(VEC) is emerging as a promising solution to let battery-powered ground
vehicles with limited computing and storage resources offload processing tasks
to more powerful devices. Given the dynamic vehicular environment, VEC systems
need to be as flexible, intelligent, and adaptive as possible. To this aim, in
this paper we study the opportunity to realize VEC via non-terrestrial networks
(NTNs), where ground vehicles offload resource-hungry tasks to Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs), High Altitude Platforms (HAPs), or a combination of the two.
We define an optimization problem in which tasks are modeled as a Poisson
arrival process, and apply queuing theory to find the optimal offloading factor
in the system. Numerical results show that aerial-assisted VEC is feasible even
in dense networks, provided that high-capacity HAP/UAV platforms are available.
