Edge Computing System Research Articles

Quantum-inspired gravitational search algorithm-based low-price binary task offloading for multi-users in unmanned aerial vehicle-assisted edge computing systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-assisted edge computing (EC) brings computing resources closer to smart mobile devices (SMDs). Users of SMDs with limited resources can experience the flavour of computation and data-intensive applications. Users conserve energy by offloading resource-intensive tasks to edge servers (ESs) or UAVs. While offloading may introduce communication delays, leveraging ample wireless bandwidth can mitigate this issue by facilitating faster data transmission rates. However, mobile service providers (MSPs), facilitating offloading infrastructure, impose charges on users for bandwidth usage. Efficient utilization of limited computation units (CUs) is crucial. This paper introduces a binary task offloading (BTO) model for multi-user in multi-UAV-assisted EC systems using a quantum-inspired gravitational search algorithm (QGSA). Quantum encoding and decoding of the agents are provided. The decoding phase uses a novel hashing. The fitness function considers energy, delay, price, and resource utilization. Two penalties are incorporated with the fitness to discard the decoded agent that violates the constraints of the BTO model. The proposed QGSA ensures polynomial time execution. The proposed work is extensively simulated in multiple scenarios and compared with existing approaches. It is observed that the QGSA outperformed other algorithms in terms of delay, energy, resource utilization, and price. Analyses of convergence and statistics are performed.

TD3-based trajectory optimization for energy consumption minimization in UAV-assisted MEC system

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) assisted Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) systems provide substantial benefits for task offloading and communication services, especially in situations where traditional communication infrastructure is unavailable. Current research emphasizes maintaining communication quality while minimizing total energy consumption and optimizing UAV flight trajectories. However, several issues remain: First, the energy consumption objective function lacks comprehensiveness, neglecting the impact of UAV flight energy consumption; second, an effective Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithm has not been employed to address the non-convexity of the objective function; third, there is insufficient discussion regarding the practical significance of the proposed approach. To address these issues, this paper formulates an objective function aimed at minimizing MEC energy consumption by considering task offloading decisions, communication delays, computational energy consumption, and UAV flight energy consumption. We propose a Population Diversity-based Particle Swarm Optimization-Double Delay Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (PDPSO-TD3) algorithm to find the optimal solution, enhance UAV flight trajectories through optimized offloading decisions, ensure efficient communication, and minimize the total energy consumption of the MEC system. Furthermore, we discuss the practical applicability of PDPSO-TD3 in detail and present the proposed scheme. Experimental results demonstrate that compared to the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm, for transmission delay, MEC energy consumption, UAV flight energy consumption, and User Equipments (UEs) access rate metrics. The proposed PDPSO-TD3 algorithm can improvement the performance by about 14.3%, 10.1%, 6.1%, and 3.3%, respectively.

The New Method for Ground Insulation Monitoring of the Secondary Circuit in Substations

When two-or-more-point grounding faults occur in the secondary circuit of a substation, they will lead to large data measurement errors in the protection, measurement, and control devices, which can easily cause protection malfunction. At present, there is a lack of an online panoramic monitoring system for the secondary circuits of substations, and it is difficult to accurately identify the faults in these secondary circuits. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a cloud–edge collaboration framework for the power Internet of Things (IoT), which can accurately identify faults by monitoring the secondary circuit of power grid substations with panoramic online status, reducing maintenance costs and improving overall operational efficiency. Firstly, the collection requirements of current transformer (CT) and potential transformer (PT) fault characteristics in the secondary circuit of the substation are analyzed. The platform architecture of the secondary loop panoramic monitoring system of the cloud-side cooperative substation is proposed, along with the algorithm and data wireless acquisition scheme of the edge computing, cloud computing, and cloud-side system. Furthermore, the edge computing platform and the current and voltage wireless sensors are developed. The maximum error in the accuracy test of the voltage sensor is 1.9180%, while the maximum error in the accuracy test of the current sensor is 1.3406%.

A multi-strategy optimizer for energy minimization of multi-UAV-assisted mobile edge computing

Disasters in remote areas often cause damage to communication facilities, which presents significant challenges for rescue efforts. As flexible mobile devices, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide temporary network services to address this issue. This paper studies the use of UAVs as mobile base stations to offer offload computing services for disaster relief devices in affected areas. To ensure reliable communication between disaster relief devices and UAVs, we construct a multi-UAV-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) system with the objective of minimizing system energy consumption. Inspired by swarm intelligence principles, we propose a multi-strategy optimizer (MSO) that defines various population search functions and employs superior neighborhood methods for population updates. Experimental results demonstrate that MSO achieves superior system energy efficiency and exhibits greater stability compared to several state-of-the-art swarm intelligence algorithms.

UAV-mounted IRS assisted wireless powered mobile edge computing systems: Joint beamforming design, resource allocation and position optimization

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have been recently used in wireless-powered mobile edge computing (MEC) systems to enhance the computation bits and energy harvesting performance. However, in the conventional IRS- and UAV-aided MEC systems, the IRS is installed at fixed locations on a building, which restricts the computation performance. UAV-mounted IRS (UAV-IRS), as a promising technology, combines the advantages of UAV and IRS. Hence, in this work, we study a UAV-IRS wireless-powered MEC system, where multiple UAV-IRSs are considered between Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the base station to improve the computation bits and energy harvesting. The multi-antenna base station first charges the IoT devices via radio frequency signals, and then IoT devices offload their computation tasks to the base station via UAV-IRSs. We formulate a computation bits maximization problem for all IoT devices by jointly determining detection beamforming at IoT devices, active energy beamforming at the base station, power allocation, time slot assignment, CPU frequency, the phase shifts design in the wireless energy transfer (WET) and task offloading, and UAV-IRSs positions. A block coordinate descent (BCD) algorithm by decomposing the introduced problem into four blocks is proposed, while the detection beamforming, active energy beamforming, transmit power, time slot assignment, CPU frequency, and the phase shifts design in the task offloading are derived in closed-form results. Also, the successive convex approximation and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) are adopted to obtain the UAV-IRS positions and the phase shifts in the WET, respectively. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the presented BCD method compared with the different benchmark schemes.

Integrated trajectory optimization for UAV-enabled wireless powered MEC system with joint energy consumption and AoI minimization

This paper studies an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled wireless powered mobile edge computing (MEC) system, where a UAV, equipped with RF Chains and MEC servers, can sustainably provide wireless energy for charging Internet of Things (IoT) devices and executing computing tasks from these devices while hovering at designated hover points. Our goal is to minimize the weighted sum of energy consumption and Age of information (AoI) in this system, which depended on the UAV’s hovering time at designated points and its flying time. To achieve this, we jointly optimize the deployment of hover points and the visiting order of these points by the UAV. It is NP hard and mixed-integer non-convex which is difficult to solve by traditional methods. To tackle this problem, we present a trajectory optimization algorithm for joint energy consumption and AoI (TOJEA), which consists of two phases. In the first phase, an Equilibrium Optimizer (EO) algorithm with a variable individual size via its coding and updating strategies, in which each particle (individual) with its concentration (position) represents a target solution i.e. the whole deployment of hover points, is proposed to optimize the number and locations of hover points. Based on the deployment of hover points, a low-complexity greedy algorithm is adopted in the second stage to generate the optimal visiting order for the UAV. Experimental results demonstrate that TOJEA outperforms other algorithms on ten instances with up to 400 IoT devices.

Optimal resource management for multi-access edge computing without using cross-layer communication

We consider a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) system with a set of users, a base station (BS) with an attached MEC server, and a cloud server. The users can serve the service requests locally or can offload them to the BS which in turn can serve a subset of the offloaded requests at the MEC and can forward the requests to the cloud server. The user devices and the MEC server can be dynamically configured to serve different classes of services. The service requests offloaded to the BS incur offloading costs and those forwarded to the cloud incur additional costs; the costs could represent service charges or delays. Aggregate cost minimization subject to stability warrants optimal service scheduling and offloading at the users and the MEC server, at their application layers, and optimal uplink packet scheduling at the users’ MAC layers. Classical back-pressure (BP) based solutions entail cross-layer message exchange, and hence are not viable. We propose virtual queue-based drift-plus-penalty algorithms that are throughput optimal, and achieve the optimal delay arbitrarily closely but do not require cross-layer communication. We first consider an MEC system without local computation, and subsequently, extend our framework to incorporate local computation also. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithms offer almost the same performance as BP based algorithms. These algorithms contain tuneable parameters that offer a trade off between queue lengths at the users and the BS and the offloading costs.

HSADR: A New Highly Secure Aggregation and Dropout-Resilient Federated Learning Scheme for Radio Access Networks With Edge Computing Systems

HSADR: A New Highly Secure Aggregation and Dropout-Resilient Federated Learning Scheme for Radio Access Networks With Edge Computing Systems

Joint optimization of UAV aided covert edge computing via a deep reinforcement learning framework

In this work, we consider an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aided covert edge computing architecture, where multiple sensors are scattered with a certain distance on the ground. The sensor can implement several computation tasks. In an emergency scenario, the computational capabilities of sensors are often limited, as seen in vehicular networks or Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The UAV can be utilized to undertake parts of the computation tasks, i.e., edge computing. While various studies have advanced the performance of UAV-based edge computing systems, the security of wireless transmission in future 6G networks is becoming increasingly crucial due to its inherent broadcast nature, yet it has not received adequate attention. In this paper, we improve the covert performance in a UAV aided edge computing system. Parts of the computation tasks of multiple ground sensors are offloaded to the UAV, where the sensors offload the computing tasks to the UAV, and Willie around detects the transmissions. The transmit power of sensors, the offloading proportions of sensors and the hovering height of the UAV affect the system covert performance, we propose a deep reinforcement learning framework to jointly optimize them. The proposed algorithm minimizes the system average task processing delay while guaranteeing that the transmissions of sensors are not detected by the Willie under the covertness constraint. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to decrease the average task processing delay with comparison with other algorithms.

A Multi-Dimensional Reverse Auction Mechanism for Volatile Federated Learning in the Mobile Edge Computing Systems

Federated learning (FL) can break the problem of data silos and allow multiple data owners to collaboratively train shared machine learning models without disclosing local data in mobile edge computing. However, how to incentivize these clients to actively participate in training and ensure efficient convergence and high test accuracy of the model has become an important issue. Traditional methods often use a reverse auction framework but ignore the consideration of client volatility. This paper proposes a multi-dimensional reverse auction mechanism (MRATR) that considers the uncertainty of client training time and reputation. First, we introduce reputation to objectively reflect the data quality and training stability of the client. Then, we transform the goal of maximizing social welfare into an optimization problem, which is proven to be NP-hard. Then, we propose a multi-dimensional auction mechanism MRATR that can find the optimal client selection and task allocation strategy considering clients’ volatility and data quality differences. The computational complexity of this mechanism is polynomial, which can promote the rapid convergence of FL task models while ensuring near-optimal social welfare maximization and achieving high test accuracy. Finally, the effectiveness of this mechanism is verified through simulation experiments. Compared with a series of other mechanisms, the MRATR mechanism has faster convergence speed and higher testing accuracy on both the CIFAR-10 and IMAGE-100 datasets.

Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Dynamic Task Offloading in a Device-to-Device Mobile-Edge Computing Network to Minimize Average Task Delay with Deadline Constraints.

Device-to-device (D2D) is a pivotal technology in the next generation of communication, allowing for direct task offloading between mobile devices (MDs) to improve the efficient utilization of idle resources. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for dynamic task offloading between the active MDs and the idle MDs in a D2D-MEC (mobile edge computing) system by deploying multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to minimize the long-term average delay of delay-sensitive tasks under deadline constraints. Our core innovation is a dynamic partitioning scheme for idle and active devices in the D2D-MEC system, accounting for stochastic task arrivals and multi-time-slot task execution, which has been insufficiently explored in the existing literature. We adopt a queue-based system to formulate a dynamic task offloading optimization problem. To address the challenges of large action space and the coupling of actions across time slots, we model the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and perform multi-agent DRL through multi-agent proximal policy optimization (MAPPO). We employ a centralized training with decentralized execution (CTDE) framework to enable each MD to make offloading decisions solely based on its local system state. Extensive simulations demonstrate the efficiency and fast convergence of our algorithm. In comparison to the existing sub-optimal results deploying single-agent DRL, our algorithm reduces the average task completion delay by 11.0% and the ratio of dropped tasks by 17.0%. Our proposed algorithm is particularly pertinent to sensor networks, where mobile devices equipped with sensors generate a substantial volume of data that requires timely processing to ensure quality of experience (QoE) and meet the service-level agreements (SLAs) of delay-sensitive applications.

Low-Cost, Low-Power Edge Computing System for Structural Health Monitoring in an IoT Framework.

A complete low-power, low-cost and wireless solution for bridge structural health monitoring is presented. This work includes monitoring nodes with modular hardware design and low power consumption based on a control and resource management board called CoreBoard, and a specific board for sensorization called SensorBoard is presented. The firmware is presented as a design of FreeRTOS parallelised tasks that carry out the management of the hardware resources and implement the Random Decrement Technique to minimize the amount of data to be transmitted over the NB-IoT network in a secure way. The presented solution is validated through the characterization of its energy consumption, which guarantees an autonomy higher than 10 years with a daily 8 min monitoring periodicity, and two deployments in a pilot laboratory structure and the Eduardo Torroja bridge in Posadas (Córdoba, Spain). The results are compared with two different calibrated commercial systems, obtaining an error lower than 1.72% in modal analysis frequencies. The architecture and the results obtained place the presented design as a new solution in the state of the art and, thanks to its autonomy, low cost and the graphical device management interface presented, allow its deployment and integration in the current IoT paradigm.

Task Offloading and Execution in Edge-Cloud Collaborative Network Using Genetic Algorithm

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) system is now one of the most emerging sectors in wireless communication. It provides computation capability near the edge users and reduces the dependency on the Internet Cloud (IC). The edge users offload the task to the MEC server due to the lack of computing resources for executing resource-hungry applications. MEC servers can serve faster as they are quite close to the edge users but have limited computation resources compared to IC. On the other hand, IC has abundant computation resources but offloading to IC will add extra latency to complete tasks execution. In this scenario, an MEC has to decide intelligently which tasks should be executed by itself and which should be sent to IC. In this paper, we addressed this issue of task assignment and execution either on MEC or on IC and formulated an optimization problem to reduce the task processing latency. The problem is Integer Linear and NP-Complete, thus having higher time complexity. In this regard, we proposed a Genetic algorithm-based Meta-Heuristic method to solve the task completion problem considering the delay constraint of the user. Simulation results of the proposed method indicated improvement in terms of successful task execution, task turnaround time, and better Quality of experience (QoE) compared to the state-of-the-art works. GUB JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, Vol 9(1), 2022 P 42-51

Joint Task and Computing Resource Allocation in Distributed Edge Computing Systems via Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning

Joint Task and Computing Resource Allocation in Distributed Edge Computing Systems via Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning

Energy saving computation offloading for dynamic CR-MEC systems with NOMA via decomposition based soft actor–critic

This paper investigates resource allocation in cognitive radio (CR) based mobile edge computing (MEC) systems under time-varying channels while considering non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique. In contrast to prior research on NOMA-MEC, we introduce a generalized user grouping scheme, which makes the secondary users (SUs) have the flexibility to participate in multiple NOMA groups simultaneously, enabling the partial offloading of their task data to multiple MEC servers. To tackle the non-convex long-term energy minimization problem, we propose a decomposition based soft actor–critic (DB-SAC) approach combining conventional convex optimization with deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms, which divides the problem into a joint communication and computation resource allocation subproblem and an offloading ratios optimization subproblem. The former one is further divided into a series of local computation resource and offloading energy minimization problems, addressed through theoretical analysis and convex optimization techniques. For the latter subproblem, we adopt the SAC algorithm to dynamically allocate offloading ratios for SUs. Simulation results showcase that when compared to the conventional non-generalized user grouping scheme, the generalized user grouping scheme can achieve remarkable energy savings of up to 87.5%.

Joint Task Dispatching and Bandwidth Allocation with Hard Deadlines in Distributed Serverless Edge Computing Systems

Joint Task Dispatching and Bandwidth Allocation with Hard Deadlines in Distributed Serverless Edge Computing Systems

UAV-Mounted RIS-Aided Mobile Edge Computing System: A DDQN-Based Optimization Approach

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are increasingly employed in mobile edge computing (MEC) systems to flexibly modify the signal transmission environment. This is achieved through the active manipulation of the wireless channel facilitated by the mobile deployment of UAVs and the intelligent reflection of signals by RISs. However, these technologies are subject to inherent limitations such as the restricted range of UAVs and limited RIS coverage, which hinder their broader application. The integration of UAVs and RISs into UAV–RIS schemes presents a promising approach to surmounting these limitations by leveraging the strengths of both technologies. Motivated by the above observations, we contemplate a novel UAV–RIS-aided MEC system, wherein UAV–RIS plays a pivotal role in facilitating communication between terrestrial vehicle users and MEC servers. To address this challenging non-convex problem, we propose an energy-constrained approach to maximize the system’s energy efficiency based on a double-deep Q-network (DDQN), which is employed to realize joint control of the UAVs, passive beamforming, and resource allocation for MEC. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed optimization scheme significantly enhances the system efficiency of the UAV–RIS-aided time division multiple access (TDMA) network.

ENASFL: A Federated Neural Architecture Search Scheme for Heterogeneous Deep Models in Distributed Edge Computing Systems

ENASFL: A Federated Neural Architecture Search Scheme for Heterogeneous Deep Models in Distributed Edge Computing Systems

Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Enhanced Airport Ground Movement Management Efficiency and Reliability

The Executive summary serves to give the highlights of the research paper and an overview of the objectives, methods used, key findings and implications. It is a brief rundown of the whole research document and provides time-pressed readers with some insights onto the study without having to go into deeper details. Introduction: This research paper examines how blockchain, edge computing and autonomous systems can be integrated inside airports in order to enhance performance and reliability of airport ground movement management. There is need for innovative approaches towards optimizing ground movement in highly complex airports to ensure that they operate seamlessly in a growing air traffic scenario. Objectives: The main aim of this study is to explore how blockchain, edge computing and autonomous systems could change airport ground movement management entirely. These technologies will be exploited for improving data sharing, enhancing real-time processing capabilities as well as enabling automatic decision support services on the ground operations. Methodology: In this case a mixed method approach has been used which involves qualitative and quantitative analysis. Qualitative methods like surveys and questionnaires are done so as researchers get insights from different stakeholders, Integrating various stakeholders, including airlines, airports, and regulators, regarding their perspectives on integrating new technologies into ground movement management!!! Quantitative methods involve data analysis to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of proposed technological solutions. Additionally, simulations and case studies are conducted to evaluate the impact of these technologies on ground movement optimization. Key Findings: The research yields promising results, indicating significant improvements in routing efficiency, reduced taxiing times, and increased operational reliability. The integration of blockchain facilitates secure data sharing, while edge computing enables real-time processing, leading to faster decision-making in ground movement management! Autonomous systems contribute to optimizing resource routing and allocation decisions, further enhancing operational efficiency. Implications and Recommendations: The findings of the research carry both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretical implications include advancing knowledge in the field of airport ground movement management by exploring the potential of emerging technologies. On a practical level, the research provides valuable insights for airport stakeholders seeking to modernize their ground movement control systems?? Recommendations include addressing the complexity of integrating multiple emerging technologies and overcoming challenges related to data security and system interoperability. Conclusion: In conclusion, the research underscores the significance of integrating blockchain, edge computing, and autonomous systems into airport traffic management to enhance efficiency and reliability!!! By addressing key challenges in ground movement management, the study paves the way for more streamlined and resilient airport operations, ultimately benefiting the aviation industry as a whole.

A Multi-Agent RL Algorithm for Dynamic Task Offloading in D2D-MEC Network with Energy Harvesting.

Delay-sensitive task offloading in a device-to-device assisted mobile edge computing (D2D-MEC) system with energy harvesting devices is a critical challenge due to the dynamic load level at edge nodes and the variability in harvested energy. In this paper, we propose a joint dynamic task offloading and CPU frequency control scheme for delay-sensitive tasks in a D2D-MEC system, taking into account the intricacies of multi-slot tasks, characterized by diverse processing speeds and data transmission rates. Our methodology involves meticulous modeling of task arrival and service processes using queuing systems, coupled with the strategic utilization of D2D communication to alleviate edge server load and prevent network congestion effectively. Central to our solution is the formulation of average task delay optimization as a challenging nonlinear integer programming problem, requiring intelligent decision making regarding task offloading for each generated task at active mobile devices and CPU frequency adjustments at discrete time slots. To navigate the intricate landscape of the extensive discrete action space, we design an efficient multi-agent DRL learning algorithm named MAOC, which is based on MAPPO, to minimize the average task delay by dynamically determining task-offloading decisions and CPU frequencies. MAOC operates within a centralized training with decentralized execution (CTDE) framework, empowering individual mobile devices to make decisions autonomously based on their unique system states. Experimental results demonstrate its swift convergence and operational efficiency, and it outperforms other baseline algorithms.