Delay-based Categorisation and Adaptive MES-Activation (DCAMA) through the Inclusion of Remote Cloud Server in Multi-Access Edge Computing Networks

Envisioned low-latency services in 5G, like automated\n\t\t\t\t driving, will rely mainly on Multi-access Edge Computing\n\t\t\t\t (MEC) to reduce the distance, and hence latency, between users\n\t\t\t\t and the remote applications. MEC hosts will be deployed close to\n\t\t\t\t mobile base stations, constituting a highly distributed computing\n\t\t\t\t platform. However, user mobility may raise the need to migrate a\n\t\t\t\t MEC application among MEC hosts to ensure always connecting\n\t\t\t\t users to the optimal server, in terms of geographical proximity,\n\t\t\t\t Quality of Service (QoS), etc. However, service migration may\n\t\t\t\t introduce: (i) latency for users due to the downtime duration;\n\t\t\t\t (ii) cost for the network operator as it consumes bandwidth\n\t\t\t\t to migrate services. One solution could be the use of service\n\t\t\t\t replication, which pro-actively replicates the service to avoid service\n\t\t\t\t migration and ensure low latency access. Service replication\n\t\t\t\t induces cost in terms of storage, though, requiring a careful\n\t\t\t\t study on the number of service to replicate and distribute in\n\t\t\t\t MEC. In this paper, we propose to compare service migration\n\t\t\t\t and service replication via an analytical model. The proposed\n\t\t\t\t model captures the relation between user mobility and service\n\t\t\t\t duration on service replication as well as service migration costs.\n\t\t\t\t The obtained results allow to propose recommendations between\n\t\t\t\t using service migration or service replication according to user\n\t\t\t\t mobility and the number of replicates to use for two types of\n\t\t\t\t service.

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is an emerging computing paradigm that brings services from the centralized cloud to nearby network edge to improve users' Quality of Experience (QoE). As massive services with dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) are available in MEC, it becomes challenging for users to find reliable services that satisfy their needs. Therefore, service recommendation technology is urgently needed in MEC. Although existing service recommendation methods work well on recommending popular services that users might be interested in, they fail to recommend services with reliable QoS in the MEC environment. To tackle this issue, an accurate and reliable service recommendation (ARSR) approach based on bilateral perception is proposed, which aims to proactively recommend reliable services by perceiving both users' service demands and multi-QoS of candidate services. ARSR consists of three main steps. First, a user's service demand is estimated by a context-aware service demand prediction method based on an improved online deep learning model. Then, multiple QoS attributes of candidate services are forecasted by a multidimensional contexts-aware QoS prediction method based on an improved multi-task deep neural network. Finally, the optimal service is recommended to the user based on the predicted QoS. Extensive experiments have been carried out to verify the proposed approach and to prove its performance superiority.

In recent years, AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) applications have received lots of attention since it exploits widely deployed IoT devices to collect data and perform an action while leveraging AI to obtain knowledge and insights. When deploying AIoT in 5G networks, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) is appropriate for enabling local management of IoT devices and computation of machine learning (ML) algorithms. Facing the multitude of threats in the ML data layer, IoT service layer, and 5G communications layer, MEC should enable corresponding detection and mitigation schemes to protect AIoT applications. In this article, we examine the existing security solutions located in each layer and discuss the interrelated challenges. For example, a network-traffic-based IDS solution in MEC might capture IoT malware but fail to identify a growing file-less attack. We suggest that firmware emulation in IoT endpoint should be included to provide system-level behaviors to network-based detectors in MEC so that file-less attacks can be distinguished. The potential of a backdoor attack aiming to poison data or corrupt ML models cannot be ignored in AIoT applications, and a corresponding detector should be implemented in MEC. Due to the rise of low-cost Software-Defined Radio (SDR), malicious attacks using rogue base stations (BSs) have become more popular. It implies that security protection at MEC in the communications layer is necessary. This article, therefore, proposes a novel platform, M3Inspector, where inspectors located in mobiles and AIoT machines collect information from surrounding BSs and provide them to MEC. MEC determines the rogue BS and makes a notification to users subscribing to the local service. A realistic 5G experimental platform with rogue BSs is developed. The results demonstrate that attack detection and mitigation can be implemented in the MEC paradigm to significantly improve the security protection of AIoT from the perspectives of rogue BS attacks and file-less attacks.

ABSTRACT6G technology is expected to transform communications by allowing the Internet of Everything, representing a huge advance in 2030. While B5G has not yet been established, various nations are actively working on 5G, but certain research groups are presently devoting their attention to the creation of 6G technologies. The upcoming 6G networks promise higher quality of service (QoS) features, including virtual reality and holographic communications. Multi‐Access Edge Computing (MEC) and, in particular, the offloading idea are key components of 6G innovation that enable resource‐intensive application design. If the wireless link used for computational offloading is inefficient, MEC's true potential can be impeded. Intelligent beamforming and MEC have garnered attention recently. Systematically optimizing the wireless communication environment, these developments improve connectivity between user equipment (UE) and base station (BS). By increasing the electrical charge of the reflectable signal, intelligent beamforming increases the range and efficacy of Back Communication. Particularly, this study assesses how well the MEC structure performs in urban microcellular settings when intelligent beamforming is used in communications. It has been demonstrated that the use of Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRS) greatly reduces spectrum and energy usage. This study's results are implemented in Python software. Our suggested strategy shows better latency compared to other optimization methods and shorter task completion times than traditional methods. When compared to conventional techniques, the suggested MEC‐enabled network showcasing lower latency (4.9 ms) and efficient network congestion management and task completion time (30 ms) demonstrates a significant performance. These results highlight how intelligent beamforming and MEC have a lot of potential to shape the architecture of 6G networks in the future.

Mobility-aware task offloading in MEC with task migration and result caching

Joint optimization of phase shift and task offloading for RIS-assisted multi-access edge computing in beyond 6G communication

The Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) constitutes computing over virtualized resources distributed at the edge of mobile network. For mobile users, an optimal allocation of communication and computing resources changes over time and space, and the resource allocation becomes a complex problem. Moreover, for delay constrained applications, the resource allocation to mobile users cannot be solved by approaches designed for static users, as a solution would not be obtained within a desired time. Thus, in this paper, we propose a low-complexity computing and communication resource allocation for offloading of real-time computing tasks generated with a high arrival rate by the mobile users. We exploit probabilistic modeling of the users’ movement to pre-allocate the computing resources at base stations and to select suitable communication paths between the users and the base station with the pre-allocated computing resources. The simulations show that the proposed algorithm keeps the offloading delay below 100 ms for the small tasks even with the arrival rate of five tasks per second per user, while the state-of-the-art algorithms can handle only up to 0.5 tasks per second per user. Thus, the proposal enables an exploitation of the MEC for various real-time applications even if the users are moving.

The deployment of fifth-generation (5G) and beyond 5G (B5G) networks is the ambitious objective of modern research on future mobile networks that are evolving to support computation-intensive and communication-sensitive applications. Such applications (e.g., autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and remote surgery) impose diverse quality-of-service (QoS) requirements on the network in terms of processing, latency, reliability, and bandwidth, and will require ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), paving the way for multi-access edge computing (MEC). Our work considers a dynamic indoor B5G network in a robotic scenario where agents continuously need MEC services and migrate from one cell to another to perform their tasks in an ultra-dense cell environment. Assuming that every MEC service is a virtual machine (VM) to execute in one of the cells with the possibility of migrating the VM to another cell by paying some cost, we formalize the joint problem of (1) placing/migrating the VMs to respect their end-to-end communication latency requirements and (2) allocating their computation and communication bandwidth as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). An MILP solver is then used to find the optimal VM placements/migrations and bandwidth allocations over a time horizon.Keywords5GMECMILPURLLCReal-time

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) has played an important role in realizing intelligent beyond 5G (B5G) vehicular networks. The computation tasks of intelligent applications can be offloaded to and processed by near-end-user MEC servers to meet strict latency requirements. However, the latency of provided services is dependent on MEC processor scheduling and millimeter wave (mmWave) transmission conditions for the urban B5G vehicular networks. To alleviate the mmWave signal attenuation caused by buildings, Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) has been regarded as efficient and prospective infrastructure. In this article, we study the IRS-aided MEC-served vehicular networks and analyze the relationship between computation resource allocation and offloading policy at an intersection. Considering the vehicle mobility patterns, transmission conditions, and task sizes, we optimize the task scheduling by improving the allocation of limited processors and IRS resource. Moreover, the mutual interference among concurrent transmissions is taken into account. Assuming the moving directions available, a dynamic task scheduling algorithm is proposed which considers both the communications and computations. The simulation results illustrate that our proposal outperforms benchmark methods in terms of task offloading rate, computing rate, and finish rate for the IRS-aided MEC-served vehicular networks.

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

Optimizing the energy consumption of an MEC (Multi-Access Edge Computing) system is a crucial challenge for operation cost reduction and environmental conservation. In this paper, we address an MECS (MEC Server) sleep control problem that aims to reduce the energy consumption of the system while providing users with a reasonable service delay by adjusting the number of active MECSs according to the load imposed on the system. To tackle the problem, we identify two crucial issues that influence the design of an effective sleep control technique and propose methods to address each of these issues. The first issue is accurately predicting the system load. Changes in system load are spatio-temporally correlated among MECSs. By leveraging such correlation information with STGCN (Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network), we enhance the prediction accuracy of task arrival rates for each MECS. The second issue is rapidly selecting MECSs to sleep when the load distribution over an MEC system is given. The problem of choosing sleep MECS is a combinatorial optimization problem with high time complexity. To address the issue, we employ a genetic algorithm and quickly determine the optimal sleep MECS with the predicted load information for each MECS. Through simulation studies, we verify that compared to the LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory)-based method, our method increases the energy efficiency of an MEC system while providing a compatible service delay.

Various real-time, latency-sensitive, and high-speed mobile applications are evolving as 5G applications. These applications are realized using Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies in the 5G system. MEC platform, MEC service, and MEC application are the main components of an MEC Framework. NFV Orchestrator, Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM), and virtualization technologies such as Virtual Machines (VM) and Containers are the main pillars of the NFV technology. In this paper, we study the impact of the virtualization technologies in the deployment of the MEC framework and its components while. We also study the impact of virtualization technologies on NFV and MEC KPIs such as onboarding time, instantiation time, MEC service and application response times. The experiments and its analysis show that containers perform better than VM to instantiate/terminate MEC components in the NFV framework. The observed MEC service KPIs show that the edge application’s performance will be improved to meet the QoE of the applications irrespective of the virtualization technology used. These results can be used as a reference while deploying the MEC components based on their granular functionalities.

To achieve the service-oriented features of the 5G, network slicing aims to create logical virtual networks where multiple services are provided on a common physical infrastructure. The performance of network slicing depends on the intelligent management of multi-dimensional resources, which are exactly what multi-access edge computing (MEC) provides. This paper proposes joint optimization of communication, computing and caching (3C) resources in multi-access edge network slicing. The optimization objective of the two-level resource allocation problem is to maximize the utility obtained by mobile virtual network operators while ensuring the quality of service (QoS). The deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach is employed which enables the resource allocation scheme to intelligently adapt to the dynamic environment. Specifically, we propose a novel DRL approach named twin-actor deep deterministic policy gradient (twin-actor DDPG). Since the action space is continuous, the DDPG is adopted where the actor generates the deterministic policy while the critic evaluates the policy and guides the actor to obtain the optimal policy. A novel twin-actor structure is put forward to replace the actor of the DDPG, thus the slice-level action and user-level action can be generated respectively. The convergence and effectiveness of the proposed DRL based algorithm is are verified by numerical simulation.

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) promises to deliver localized computing power and storage. Coupled with low-latency 5G radio access, this enables the creation of high added-value services for mobile users, such as in-vehicle infotainment or remote driving. The performance of these services as well as their scalability will however depend on how MEC will be deployed in 5G systems. This paper evaluates different MEC deployment options, coherent with the respective 5G migration phases, using an accurate and comprehensive end-to-end (E2E) system simulation model (exploiting Simu5G for radio access and Intel CoFluent for core network and MEC), taking into account user-related metrics, such as response time or MEC latency. Our results show that 4G radio access is going to be a bottleneck, preventing MEC services from scaling up. On the other hand, the introduction of 5G will allow a considerable higher penetration of MEC services.

The rapid development of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) makes it convenient to sense and collect real-world information with different kinds of widely distributed sensors. With plenty of web services providing diverse functions on the cloud, the collected information can be sufficiently used to complete complex tasks after being uploaded. However, the latency brought by long-distance communication and network congestion limits the development of IoT platforms. A feasible approach to solve this problem is to establish an edge-cloud collaboration (ECC) system based on the multi-access edge computing (MEC) paradigm where the collected information can be refined with the services deployed on nearby edge servers. However, as the edge servers are resource-limited, we should be more careful in allocating the edge resource to services, as well as designing the traffic scheduling strategy. In this paper, we investigated the edge-cloud cooperation mechanism of service provisioning in ECC systems, and to that end, proposed an energy-consumption model for it; we also proposed a performance model and balancing model to quantify the running state of ECC systems. Based on these, we further formulated the energy-effective ECC system optimization problem as a joint optimization problem whose decision variables are the resource allocation strategy and traffic scheduling strategy. With the convexity of this problem proved, we proposed an algorithm to solve it and conducted a series of experiments to evaluate its performance. The results showed that our approach can improve at least 4.3 % of the performance compared with representative baselines.