This paper studies a sequential task offloading problem for a multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC) system. We consider a dynamic optimization approach, which embraces wireless channel fluctuations and random deep neural network (DNN) task arrivals over an infinite horizon. Specifically, we introduce a local CPU workload queue (WD-QSI) and an MEC server workload queue (MEC-QSI) to model the dynamic workload of DNN tasks at each WD and the MEC server, respectively. The transmit power and the partitioning of the local DNN task at each WD are dynamically determined based on the instantaneous channel conditions (to capture the transmission opportunities) and the instantaneous WD-QSI and MEC-QSI (to capture the dynamic urgency of the tasks) to minimize the average latency of the DNN tasks. The joint optimization can be formulated as an ergodic Markov decision process (MDP), in which the optimality condition is characterized by a centralized Bellman equation. However, the brute force solution of the MDP is not viable due to the curse of dimensionality as well as the requirement for knowledge of the global state information. To overcome these issues, we first decompose the MDP into multiple lower dimensional sub-MDPs, each of which can be associated with a WD or the MEC server. Next, we further develop a parametric online Q-learning algorithm, so that each sub-MDP is solved locally at its associated WD or the MEC server. The proposed solution is completely decentralized in the sense that the transmit power for sequential offloading and the DNN task partitioning can be determined based on the local channel state information (CSI) and the local WD-QSI at the WD only. Additionally, no prior knowledge of the distribution of the DNN task arrivals or the channel statistics will be needed for the MEC server.
In various Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, a number of devices and sensors are used to collect data sets. As devices become more capable and smarter, they can not only collect data sets, but also process them locally. However, since most devices would be limited in terms of computing power and energy, they can take advantage of offloading so that their tasks can be carried out at mobile edge computing (MEC) servers. In this paper, we discuss computation offloading for devices in IoT applications. In particular, we consider users or devices with sporadic tasks, where optimizing resource …
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) is an emerging technology for enhancing the computational capabilities of mobile devices and reducing their energy consumption via offloading complex computation tasks to the nearby servers. Multiuser MEC at servers is widely realized via parallel computing based on virtualization. Due to finite shared I/O resources, interference between virtual machines (VMs), called I/O interference, degrades the computation performance. In this paper, we study the problem of joint radio-and-computation resource allocation (RCRA) in multiuser MEC systems in the presence of I/O int…
This letter considers a mobile edge computing (MEC) system with one access point (AP) serving multiple users over a multicarrier channel, in the presence of a malicious eavesdropper. In this system, each user can execute the respective computation tasks by partitioning them into two parts, which are computed locally and offloaded to AP, respectively. We exploit the physical-layer security to secure the multiuser computation offloading from being overheard by the eavesdropper. Under this setup, we minimize the weighted sum-energy consumption for these users, subject to the newly imposed secrecy…
This paper studies a multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC) system, in which one base station (BS) serves multiple users with intensive computation tasks. We exploit the multi-antenna non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique for multiuser computation offloading, such that different users can simultaneously offload their computation tasks to the multi-antenna BS over the same time/frequency resources, and the BS can employ successive interference cancellation (SIC) to efficiently decode all users' offloaded tasks for remote execution. We aim to minimize the weighted sum-energy consumption…
This paper considers computation offloading in fog-radio access networks (F-RAN), where multiple user equipments (UEs) offload their computation tasks to the F-RAN through a number of fog nodes. Each UE can choose one of the fog nodes to offload its task, and each fog node may serve multiple UEs. Depending on the computation burden at the fog nodes, the tasks may be computed by the fog nodes or further offloaded to the cloud via capacity-limited fronthaul links. To compute all UEs' tasks as fast as possible, joint optimization of UE-Fog association, radio and computation resources of F-RAN is …
Computation offloading becomes useful for users of limited computing power and mobile edge computing (MEC) can help mobile users perform their tasks more effectively. In this paper, we consider MEC when users perform tasks with local data as well as data at cloud storage servers, since users can often keep their data at cloud storage servers or have tasks that need to use public datasets. An optimization problem to minimize the total consumed energy of users as well as a base station (BS) is formulated with a total transmission time constraint, which is solved by converting into multiple binar…
Mobile-edge computation offloading (MECO) offloads intensive mobile computation to clouds located at the edges of cellular networks. Thereby, MECO is envisioned as a promising technique for prolonging the battery lives and enhancing the computation capacities of mobiles. In this paper, we consider resource allocation in a MECO system comprising multiple users that time share a single edge cloud and have different computation loads. The optimal resource allocation is formulated as a convex optimization problem for minimizing the weighted sum mobile energy consumption under constraint on computa…
This paper considers an energy harvesting (EH) based multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC) system, where each user utilizes the harvested energy from renewable energy sources to execute its computation tasks via computation offloading and local computing. Towards maximizing the system's weighted computation rate (i.e., the number of weighted users' computing bits within a finite time horizon) subject to the users' energy causality constraints due to dynamic energy arrivals, the decision for joint computation offloading and local computing over time is optimized {\em over time}. Assuming that t…
Integrating mobile edge computing (MEC) and wireless power transfer (WPT) has been regarded as a promising technique to improve computation capabilities for self-sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This paper investigates a wireless powered multiuser MEC system, where a multi-antenna access point (AP) (integrated with an MEC server) broadcasts wireless power to charge multiple users for mobile computing. We consider a time-division multiple access (TDMA) protocol for multiuser computation offloading. Under this setup, we aim to maximize the weighted sum of the computation rates (in t…
Mobile-edge computation offloading (MECO) offloads intensive mobile computation to clouds located at the edges of cellular networks. Thereby, MECO is envisioned as a promising technique for prolonging the battery lives and enhancing the computation capacities of mobiles. In this paper, we study resource allocation for a multiuser MECO system based on time-division multiple access (TDMA) and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA). First, for the TDMA MECO system with infinite or finite computation capacity, the optimal resource allocation is formulated as a convex optimization pr…
This letter investigates a cache-enabled multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC) system with dynamic task arrivals, taking into account the impact of proactive cache placement on the system's overall energy consumption. We consider that an access point (AP) schedules a wireless device (WD) to offload computational tasks while executing the tasks of a finite library in the \emph{task caching} phase, such that the nearby WDs with the same task request arriving later can directly download the task results in the \emph{task arrival and execution} phase. We aim for minimizing the system's weighted-su…
Mobile edge computing (MEC) can enhance the computing capability of mobile devices, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can provide high data rates. Combining these two technologies can effectively benefit the network with spectrum and energy efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the task completion time minimization in NOMA multiuser MEC networks, where multiple users can offload their tasks simultaneously via the same frequency band. We adopt the \emph{partial} offloading, in which each user can partition its computation task into offloading computing and locally computing parts. W…
This paper considers non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) assisted mobile edge computing (MEC), where the power and time allocation is jointly optimized to reduce the energy consumption of offloading. Closed-form expressions for the optimal power and time allocation solutions are obtained and used to establish the conditions for determining whether conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA), pure NOMA or hybrid NOMA should be used for MEC offloading.
This letter considers a multi-access mobile edge computing (MEC) network consisting of multiple users, multiple base stations, and a malicious eavesdropper. Specifically, the users adopt the partial offloading strategy by partitioning the computation task into several parts. One is executed locally and the others are securely offloaded to multiple MEC servers integrated into the base stations by leveraging the physical layer security to combat the eavesdropping. We jointly optimize power allocation, task partition, subcarrier allocation, and computation resource to maximize the secrecy offload…
Mobile edge computing (MEC) has recently emerged as a promising technology to release the tension between computation-intensive applications and resource-limited mobile terminals (MTs). In this paper, we study the delay-optimal computation offloading in computation-constrained MEC systems. We consider the computation task queue at the MEC server due to its constrained computation capability. In this case, the task queue at the MT and that at the MEC server are strongly coupled in a cascade manner, which creates complex interdependencies and brings new technical challenges. We model the computa…
Multi-access edge computing (MEC) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) have been regarded as promising technologies to improve computation capability and offloading efficiency of the mobile devices in the sixth generation (6G) mobile system. This paper mainly focuses on the hybrid NOMA-MEC system, where multiple users are first grouped into pairs, and users in each pair offload their tasks simultaneously by NOMA, and then a dedicated time duration is scheduled to the more delay-tolerable user for uploading the remaining data by orthogonal multiple access (OMA). For the conventional NOMA u…
This paper considers the minimization of the offloading delay for non-orthogonal multiple access assisted mobile edge computing (NOMA-MEC). By transforming the delay minimization problem into a form of fractional programming, two iterative algorithms based on Dinkelbach's method and Newton's method are proposed. The optimality of both methods is proved and their convergence is compared. Furthermore, criteria for choosing between three possible modes, namely orthogonal multiple access (OMA), pure NOMA, and hybrid NOMA, for MEC offloading are established.
To cope with the unprecedented surge in demand for data computing for the applications, the promising concept of multi-access edge computing (MEC) has been proposed to enable the network edges to provide closer data processing for mobile devices (MDs). Since enormous workloads need to be migrated, and MDs always remain resource-constrained, data offloading from devices to the MEC server will inevitably require more efficient transmission designs. The integration of nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique with MEC has been shown to provide applications with lower latency and higher energ…
In this paper, we develop a unified dynamic intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) beamforming framework to boost the sum computation rate of an IRS-aided mobile edge computing (MEC) system, where each device follows a binary offloading policy. Specifically, the task of each device has to be either executed locally or offloaded to MEC servers as a whole with the aid of given number of IRS beamforming vectors available. By flexibly controlling the number of IRS reconfiguration times, the system can achieve a balance between the performance and associated signalling overhead. We aim to maximize th…
Wireless network optimization has been becoming very challenging as the problem size and complexity increase tremendously, due to close couplings among network entities with heterogeneous service and resource requirements. By continuously interacting with the environment, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) provides a mechanism for different network entities to build knowledge and make autonomous decisions to improve network performance. In this article, we first review typical DRL approaches and recent enhancements. We then discuss the applications of DRL for mobile edge computing (MEC), which …
Energy harvesting aided mobile edge computing (MEC) has gained much attention for its widespread application in the computation-intensive, latency-sensitive and energy-hungry scenario. In this paper, computation offloading from multi-MD to multi-MEC-s in heterogeneous MEC systems with energy harvesting is investigated from a game theoretic perspective. The objective is to minimize the average response time of an MD that consists of communication time, waiting time and processing time. M/G/1 queueing models are established for MDs and MEC-ss. The interference among MDs, the randomness in comput…
By exploiting the superiority of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), NOMA-aided mobile edge computing (MEC) can provide scalable and low-latency computing services for the Internet of Things. However, given the prevalent stochasticity of wireless networks and sophisticated signal processing of NOMA, it is critical but challenging to design an efficient task offloading algorithm for NOMA-aided MEC, especially under a large number of devices. This paper presents an online algorithm that jointly optimizes offloading decisions and resource allocation to maximize the long-term system utility (i.…
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) and wireless power transfer are technologies that can assist in the implementation of next generation wireless networks, which will deploy a large number of computational and energy limited devices. In this letter, we consider a point-to-point MEC system, where the device harvests energy from the access point's (AP's) transmitted signal to power the offloading and/or the local computation of a task. By taking into account the non-linearities of energy harvesting, we provide analytical expressions for the probability of successful computation and for the average numb…
Fog-computing network combines the cloud computing and fog access points (FAPs) equipped with mobile edge computing (MEC) servers together to support computation-intensive tasks for mobile users. However, as FAPs have limited computational capabilities and are solely assisted by a remote cloud center in the baseband processing unit (BBU) of the cloud radio access (C-RAN) network, the latency benefits of this fog-computing C-RAN network may be worn off when facing a large number of offloading requests. In this paper, we investigate the delay minimization problem for task offloading in a hierarc…
Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an emerging paradigm that mobile devices can offload the computation-intensive or latency-critical tasks to the nearby MEC servers, so as to save energy and extend battery life. Unlike the cloud server, MEC server is a small-scale data center deployed at a wireless access point, thus it is highly sensitive to both radio and computing resource. In this paper, we consider an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA) based multi-user and multi-MEC-server system, where the task offloading strategies and wireless resources allocation are jointly invest…
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) and wireless power transfer (WPT) have been recognized as promising techniques in the Internet of Things (IoT) era to provide massive low-power wireless devices with enhanced computation capability and sustainable energy supply. In this paper, we propose a unified MEC-WPT design by considering a wireless powered multiuser MEC system, where a multi-antenna access point (AP) (integrated with an MEC server) broadcasts wireless power to charge multiple users and each user node relies on the harvested energy to execute computation tasks. With MEC, these users can execute…
Benefiting from the fusion of communication and intelligent technologies, network-enabled robots have become important to support future machine-assisted and unmanned applications. To provide high-quality services for robots in wide areas, hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks are a key technology. Through hybrid networks, computation-intensive and latency-sensitive tasks can be offloaded to mobile edge computing (MEC) servers. However, due to the mobility of mobile robots and unreliable wireless network environments, excessive local computations and frequent service migrations may significant…
Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a promising paradigm to accommodate the increasingly prosperous delay-sensitive and computation-intensive applications in 5G systems. To achieve optimum computation performance in a dynamic MEC environment, mobile devices often need to make online decisions on whether to offload the computation tasks to nearby edge terminals under the uncertainty of future system information (e.g., random wireless channel gain and task arrivals). The design of an efficient online offloading algorithm is challenging. On one hand, the fast-varying edge environment requires frequent…
This paper considers the coexistence of two important communication techniques, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and mobile edge computing (MEC). Both NOMA uplink and downlink transmissions are applied to MEC, and analytical results are developed to demonstrate that the use of NOMA can efficiently reduce the latency and energy consumption of MEC offloading. In addition, various asymptotic studies are carried out to reveal the impact of the users' channel conditions and transmit powers on the application of NOMA to MEC is quite different to those in conventional NOMA scenarios. Computer si…
In this paper, we investigate a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based mobile edge computing (MEC) network, in which two users may partially offload their respective tasks to a single MEC server through uplink NOMA. We propose a new offloading scheme that can operate in three different modes, namely the partial computation offloading, the complete local computation, and the complete offloading. We further derive a closed-form expression of the successful computation probability for the proposed scheme. As part of the proposed offloading scheme, we formulate a problem to maximize the succe…
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a prominent technique to provide mobile services with high computation requirement, by migrating the computation-intensive tasks from the mobile devices to the nearby MEC servers. To reduce the execution latency and device energy consumption, in this paper, we jointly optimize task offloading scheduling and transmit power allocation for MEC systems with multiple independent tasks. A low-complexity sub-optimal algorithm is proposed to minimize the weighted sum of the execution delay and device energy consumption based on alternating minimization. Speci…
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) is a promising technology to enable real-time information transmission and computing by offloading computation tasks from wireless devices to network edge.
Clustering mechanisms are essential in certain multiuser networks for achieving efficient resource utilization. This lecture note presents the theory of coalition formation as a useful tool for distributed clustering problems. We reveal the generality of the theory, and study complexity aspects which must be considered in multiuser networks.
An intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided wireless powered mobile edge computing (WP-MEC) system is conceived, where each device's computational task can be divided into two parts for local computing and offloading to mobile edge computing (MEC) servers, respectively. Both time division multiple access (TDMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes are considered for uplink (UL) offloading. Given the capability of IRSs in intelligently reconfiguring wireless channels over time, it is fundamentally unknown which multiple access scheme is superior for MEC UL offloading. To answer t…
Multiuser switched-diversity scheduling schemes were recently proposed in order to overcome the heavy feedback requirements of conventional opportunistic scheduling schemes by applying a threshold-based, distributed, and ordered scheduling mechanism. The main idea behind these schemes is that slight reduction in the prospected multiuser diversity gains is an acceptable trade-off for great savings in terms of required channel-state-information feedback messages. In this work, we characterize the achievable rate region of multiuser switched diversity systems and compare it with the rate region o…
Due to the spectrum reuse in small cell network, the inter-cell interference has great effect on MEC's performance. In this paper, for reducing the energy consumption and latency of MEC, we propose a game theory based jointing offloading decision and resource allocation algorithm for multi-user MEC. In this algorithm, the transmission power, offloading decision, and mobile user's CPU capability are determined jointly. We prove that this game is an exact potential game and the NE of this game exists and is unique. For reaching the NE, the best response dynamic is applied. We calculate the best …
Artificial intelligence and distributed algorithms have been widely used in mechanical fault diagnosis with the explosive growth of diagnostic data. A novel intelligent fault diagnosis system framework that allows intelligent terminals to offload computational tasks to Mobile edge computing (MEC) servers is provided in this paper, which can effectively address the problems of task processing delays and enhanced computational complexity. As the resources at the MEC and intelligent terminals are limited, performing reasonable resource allocation optimization can improve the performance, especial…
This paper considers a wireless powered multiuser mobile edge computing (MEC) system, where a multi-antenna access point (AP) employs the radio-frequency (RF) signal based wireless power transfer (WPT) to charge a number of distributed users, and each user utilizes the harvested energy to execute computation tasks via local computing and task offloading. We consider the frequency division multiple access (FDMA) protocol to support simultaneous task offloading from multiple users to the AP. Different from previous works that considered one-shot optimization with static task models, we study the…
Resource allocation is investigated for offloading computational-intensive tasks in multi-hop mobile edge computing (MEC) system. The envisioned system has both the cooperative access points (AP) with the computing capability and the MEC servers. A user-device (UD) therefore first uploads a computing task to the nearest AP, and the AP can either locally process the received task or offload to MEC server. In order to utilize the radio resource blocks (RRBs) in the APs efficiently, we exploit the non-orthogonal multiple access for offloading the tasks from the UDs to the AP(s). For the considere…
Considering the user mobility and unpredictable mobile edge computing (MEC) environments, this paper studies the intelligent task offloading problem in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled MEC with the assistance of digital twin (DT). We aim at minimizing the energy consumption of the entire MEC system by jointly optimizing mobile terminal users (MTUs) association, UAV trajectory, transmission power distribution and computation capacity allocation while respecting the constraints of mission maximum processing delays. Specifically, double deep Q-network (DDQN) algorithm stemming from deep rein…
By offloading intensive computation tasks to the edge cloud located at the cellular base stations, mobile-edge computation offloading (MECO) has been regarded as a promising means to accomplish the ambitious millisecond-scale end-to-end latency requirement of the fifth-generation networks. In this paper, we investigate the latency-minimization problem in a multi-user time-division multiple access MECO system with joint communication and computation resource allocation. Three different computation models are studied, i.e., local compression, edge cloud compression, and partial compression offlo…
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) offloads computational tasks from wireless devices to network edge, and enables real-time information transmission and computing. Most existing work concerns a small-scale synchronous MEC system. In this paper, we focus on a large-scale asynchronous MEC system with random task arrivals, distinct workloads, and diverse deadlines. We formulate the offloading policy design as a restless multi-armed bandit (RMAB) to maximize the total discounted reward over the time horizon. However, the formulated RMAB is related to a PSPACE-hard sequential decision-making problem, whi…
Limited computing resources of internet-of-things (IoT) nodes incur prohibitive latency in processing input data. This triggers new research opportunities toward task offloading systems where edge servers handle intensive computations of IoT devices. Deploying the computing servers at existing base stations may not be sufficient to support IoT nodes operating in a harsh environment. This requests mobile edge servers to be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that provide on-demand mobile edge computing (MEC) services. Time-varying offloading demands and mobility of UAVs need a joint desi…
Technological evolution of mobile user equipments (UEs), such as smartphones or laptops, goes hand-in-hand with evolution of new mobile applications. However, running computationally demanding applications at the UEs is constrained by limited battery capacity and energy consumption of the UEs. Suitable solution extending the battery life-time of the UEs is to offload the applications demanding huge processing to a conventional centralized cloud (CC). Nevertheless, this option introduces significant execution delay consisting in delivery of the offloaded applications to the cloud and back plus …
Mobile-edge computing (MEC) is an emerging paradigm to meet the ever-increasing computation demands from mobile applications. By offloading the computationally intensive workloads to the MEC server, the quality of computation experience, e.g., the execution latency, could be greatly improved. Nevertheless, as the on-device battery capacities are limited, computation would be interrupted when the battery energy runs out. To provide satisfactory computation performance as well as achieving green computing, it is of significant importance to seek renewable energy sources to power mobile devices v…
Multi-Access edge computing (MEC) is an emerging paradigm where users offload computationally intensive jobs to the Access Point (AP). Given that the AP's resources are shared by selfish users, pricing is a useful tool for incentivising users to internalize the negative externality of delay they cause to other users. Nevertheless, different users have different negative valuations towards delay as some are more delay sensitive. To serve heterogeneous users, we propose a priority pricing scheme where users can get served first for a higher price. Our goal is to find the prices such that in deci…
By allowing a mobile device to offload computation-intensive tasks to a base station, mobile edge computing (MEC) is a promising solution for saving the mobile device's energy. In real applications, the offloading may span multiple fading blocks. In this paper, we investigate energy-efficient offloading over multiple fading blocks with random channel gains. An optimization problem is formulated, which optimizes the amount of data for offloading to minimize the total expected energy consumption of the mobile device. Although the formulated optimization problem is non-convex, we prove that the o…
Deploying mobile edge computing (MEC) server in the mobile blockchain-enabled Internet of things (IoT) system is a promising approach to improve the system performance, however, it imposes a significant challenge on the trust of MEC server. To address this problem, we first propose an untrusted MEC proof of work scheme in mobile blockchain network where plenty of nonce hash computing demands can be offloaded to MEC server. Then, we design a nonce ordering algorithm for this scheme to provide fairer computing resource allocation for all mobile IoT devices/users. Specifically, we formulate the u…
A Novel Deep Reinforcement Learning Method for Computation Offloading in Multi-User Mobile Edge Computing with Decentralization
School of Information and Communications Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam（河内科学技术大学信息与通信学院）；Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hanoi Open University, Vietnam（河内开放大学电子与电气工程学院）；Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology Hanoi, Vietnam（河内邮电技术研究所）；Faculty of Informatics, University of Debrecen, Hungary（德布勒恩大学信息学院）
