A Bayesian Q-Learning Game for Dependable Task Offloading Against DDoS Attacks in Sensor Edge Cloud

Abstract

To enhance dependable resource allocation against increasing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, in this article, we investigate interactions between a sensor device–edgeVM pair and a DDoS attacker using a game-theoretic framework, under the constraints of the task time, resource budget, and incomplete knowledge of the processing time of machine learning tasks. In this game, the sensor device expects an edgeVM to cooperate and choose its resource allocation strategy with the objective of satisfying the minimum resource required of machine learning tasks at the corresponding sensor device. Similarly, the attacker’s objective is to strategically allocate resources so that the resource constraint of the machine learning tasks is not satisfied. Owing to a lack of complete information of the processing time of the machine learning tasks, this strategic resource allocation problem between the two players is modeled as a Bayesian $Q$ -learning game, in which the optimal strategies of the sensor device–edgeVM pair and the attacker are analyzed. Furthermore, probability distributions are employed by the corresponding players to model the incomplete nature of the game and a greedy $Q$ -learning algorithm is proposed to dependable resource allocation against DDoS attacks. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed mechanism is superior to other dependable resource allocation mechanisms under incomplete information for DDoS attacks in the sensor edge cloud.