The analysis of intelligent real-time image recognition technology based on mobile edge computing and deep learning

With the explosive growth of mobile devices, it is feasible to deploy image recognition applications on mobile devices to provide image recognition services. However, traditional mobile cloud computing architecture cannot meet the demands of real time response and high accuracy since users require to upload raw images to the remote central cloud servers. The emerging architecture, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) deploys small scale servers at the edge of the network, which can provide computing and storage resources for image recognition applications. To this end, in this paper, we aim to use the MEC architecture to provide image recognition service. Moreover, in order to guarantee the real time response and high accuracy, we also provide a feature extraction algorithm to extract discriminative features from the raw image to improve the accuracy of the image recognition applications. In doing so, the response time can be further reduced and the accuracy can be improved. The experimental results show that the combination between MEC architecture and the proposed feature extraction algorithm not only can greatly reduce the response time, but also improve the accuracy of the image recognition applications.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) enables cloud-based services to extend to edge networks consisting of mobile base systems. MEC provides software and hardware platforms to incorporate seamless and decentralized data management schemes adjacent to base systems, thus reducing the end-to-end latency of the user. It is an integral component of the fifth-generation (5G) architecture and operates by providing innovative IT-based services. MEC spans across multiple authoritative domains where trust and interoperability among nodes is a prime concern between low power-enabled sensor nodes, as in the case of Internet of things (IoT)-based environments. The requirements of trust and interoperability make a blockchain framework applicable to MEC platform. In such platforms, miners can solve computationally expensive proof-of-work (PoW) puzzles containing mobile transactions as blocks added to immutable ledger so that a substantial amount of CPU computations and energy constraints are consumed. This article presents a systematic survey of MEC architecture and introduces a mobile blockchain framework that can be incorporated with the MEC architecture to facilitate the mining scheme. Then, the article analyzes the effects of integration of blockchain with MEC platform. Finally, concluding remarks and future work are provided.

As the deep learning models keep growing larger, it becomes more difficult to carry out highly accurate inference on mobile and Internet of things (IoT) devices with acceptable latency. By using edge computing, a popular approach to reducing inference latency is to partition the deep neural network (DNN) model and off-load part of the model inference to the edge server for processing. However, the partition approach still has some limitations, such as data transmission latency and inflexible model deployment. In this research, we propose a novel two-level inference architecture for deep learning applications in mobile edge computing. Instead of partitioning a large DNN model, we use small models to do two levels of inferences on edge devices and edge servers respectively. With our architecture, the on-device first-level inference is conducted in parallel with the feature uploading to the edge server and different types of second-level models can be flexibly deployed in edge servers according to their environments. Experiments demonstrate that our architecture can decrease computing costs and inference latency in complicated edge environments.

The real-time communication requirement of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications promotes the convergence of IoT and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). The MEC paradigm greatly shortens the IoT service delay by leveraging cloudlets (edge servers) of MEC in the proximity of IoT devices. Considering limited computing and storage resources in an MEC network, it is challenging to provide efficient IoT-enabled service provisioning in such a network. In this article, we study the service home identification problem of service provisioning for multi-source IoT applications in an MEC network, by identifying a service home (cloudlet) of each multi-source IoT application for its data processing, querying and storage. Each multi-source IoT application consists of multiple sources located at different geographical locations and each source uploads its data stream via a gateway (its nearby access point) to the MEC network and the uploaded data then is aggregated with the stream data of the other sources of the IoT application at the service home. We here focus on two novel service home identification problems: the service operational cost minimization problem with the aim to minimize the total service operational cost by admitting as many multi-source IoT applications as possible, and the online throughput maximization problem with the aim to maximize the number of multi-source IoT application requests admitted. We first show that both the problems are NP-hard. We then formulate an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solution to the service operational cost minimization problem, and propose a randomized algorithm with high probability and a deterministic approximation algorithm respectively, at moderate resource capacity violations. We third develop an efficient heuristic algorithm for the problem without any resource violation. Furthermore, we deal with the online throughput maximization problem under an assumption that multi-source IoT application requests arrive one by one without the knowledge of future arrivals, for which we formulate an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solution to its offline version, followed by devising an online algorithm with competitive ratio. We finally evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms through experimental simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are promising, and outperform their comparison counterparts.

Mobile edge computing aims to deploy mobile applications at the edge of wireless networks. Federated learning in mobile edge computing is a forward-looking distributed framework for deploying deep learning algorithms in many application scenarios. One challenge of federated learning in mobile edge computing is data heterogeneity since the unified model of federated learning performs poorly when client data are non-independent and identically distributed. Personalized federated learning can obtain amazing models in scenarios where client data are non-independent and identically distributed. This is because the personalized model captures the features of users’ local data more accurately than the unified model. The personalized federated learning problem under two-tier (server-client) federated learning structures has been widely studied and applied. However, a lot of research results exhibit three distinct limitations: 1) suboptimal communication efficiency, 2) slow model convergence, and 3) underutilization of the relationships within user data, resulting in lower accuracy of personalized models. In this paper, we present the first personalized federated learning algorithm based on the client-edge-cloud structure. The edge server is responsible for model personalization and employs a learnable mixing parameter to mix the local model and the global model. We also utilize two learnable normalization parameters trained by clients to improve the performance of personalized models. Furthermore, in order to facilitate the collaboration among edge servers, we propose a similarity aggregation method to assign aggregation weights based on the Tanimoto coefficients between models. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm not only increases the convergence speed of personalized models but also improves their testing accuracy.

In the current fifth-generation (5G) and Beyond 5G (B5G) era, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been playing a vital role and attracting interest in different application areas in the military, and civil applications such as communications, disaster management, search and rescue, security, control, agriculture, Internet of things (IoT), etc. In these networks, ultra-heterogeneous IoT devices generate time-sensitive traffic. However, those devices have limited resources to compute tasks. Recently, Mobile Edge Computation Offloading (MECO) has been considered as an encouraging model to enable the computation tasks of IoT devices to be performed by MEC servers and support ultra-low latency IoT applications to ensure Quality of services (QoS). However, terrestrial network failure due to natural and human-made disasters has been increasing, and difficult to provide reliable computation offloading and resource allocation services to IoT networks. Nowadays, UAVs have been promising technology to quickly deploy and recover the system to provide efficient services to edge nodes. The offloading and resource allocation problems in current network technology are complex, and offloading task to edge server is vulnerable to security risks. Hence, we utilize a deep reinforcement learning method to handle a complex problem for computation offloading and resource allocations in a dynamic environment. And also, we explore a blockchain-based multi-UAV-assisted MEC architecture in securing and optimizing the offloading problems.

For several reasons, the cloud computing paradigm, e.g., mobile edge computing (MEC), is suffering from the problem of privacy issues. MEC servers provide personalization services to mobile users for better QoE qualities, but the ongoing migrated data from the source edge server to the destination edge server cause users to have privacy concerns and unwillingness of self‐disclosure, which further leads to a sparsity problem. As a result, personalization services ignore valuable user profiles across edges where users have accounts in and tend to predict users’ potential purchases with insufficient sources, thereby limiting further improvement of QoE through personalization of the contents. This paper proposes a novel model, called CEPTM, which (1) collects mobile user data across multiple MEC edge servers, (2) improves the users’ experience in personalization services by loading collected diverse data, and (3) lowers their privacy concern with the improved personalization. This model also reveals that famous topics in one edge server can migrate into several other edge servers with users’ favorite content tags and that the diverse types of items could increase the possibility of users accepting the personalization service. In the experiment section, we use exploratory factor analysis to mathematically evaluate the correlations among those factors that influence users’ information disclosure in the MEC network, and the results indicate that CEPTM (1) achieves a high rate of personalization acceptance due to the availability of more data as input and highly diverse personalization as output and (2) gains the users’ trust because it collects user data while respecting individual privacy concerns and providing better personalization. It outperforms a traditional personalization service that runs on a single‐edge server. This paper provides new insights into MEC diverse personalization services and privacy problems, and researchers and personalization providers can apply this model to merge popular users’ like trends throughout the MEC edge servers and generate better data management strategies.

Due to the exponential expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the increasing amount of data generated by numerous IoT devices has become a significant challenge for communication and computing networks. On the other hand, the concept of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) presents a viable solution as it brings computing, storage, and networking capabilities in close proximity to the user, enabling the hosting of applications that require significant computation power and low latency right at the network’s edge. In addition, the maneuverability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of deployment make Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) highly versatile wireless platforms. Capitalizing on the benefits of MEC and UAVs, this paper proposes a UAV-assisted MEC system that offloads services to reduce the computation burden in IoT. The objective is to maximize the task completion rate, considering factors such as user transmit power, task offloading rate, and UAV trajectory variables. To tackle this optimization problem, this paper devises a method based on the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), an algorithm for continuous action spaces in deep reinforcement learning. The numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison to other benchmarks, i.e., deep Q-network (DQN) and full offloading methods. In a simulation, the proposed DDPG method can achieve a fully optimized system with a 100% task success rate, while the DQN-based method achieves a lower task success rate of 95.93% and the full offloading method only obtains a task success rate of 82.73%.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) plays a pivotal role in the Internet of Vehicles and the Internet of Things. Edge server deployment is the initial step in establishing edge computing systems, which impact the overall system performance significantly. Besides, the performance of an edge computing system is also contingent upon the type of service deployed on servers, in the case of the same server deployment, different deployment of services will bring different profits. Most current studies concentrate solely on the former aspect, neglecting the optimization of service deployment in MEC system. In this article, we proposed a two-step method KPSOP for edge server and edge service deployment, aiming to reduce time delay, balance load, and improve the profit of MEC system, and KPSOP includes clustering algorithm and heuristic algorithm. We considered the location distribution of base stations, the task requests of vehicle users, the resource limitations of edge servers, etc. First, the edge server deployment was completed with the goal of minimizing time delay and load balancing. Second, the service deployment was completed with the goal of maximizing edge server profit. The experiments were based on real world base station information. The simulation results validate that our algorithm is more stable and converges faster. In addition, compared to other algorithms, it performs better in load balance and increasing profit.

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) migrates the computing center to the network edge to provide computing services for Mobile Users (MUs). However, due to the limited capacity of MUs and insufficient types of services stored by edge servers, it brings great challenges to computation offloading and service caching in Internet of Things (IoT) network. In this paper, we investigate the joint optimization problem of computation offloading, resource allocation and service caching replacement in a collaborative MEC system to minimize the total cost of all MUs under the latency and resource constraints. Accordingly, we formulate the problem as a Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming (MINLP) problem. In order to solve this problem, the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG)-based algorithm is proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is better than other benchmark schemes in different scenarios.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) provides a promising approach to significantly reduce network operational cost and improve quality of service (QoS) of mobile users by pushing computation resources to the network edges, and enables a scalable Internet of Things (IoT) architecture for time-sensitive applications (e-healthcare, real-time monitoring, and so on.). However, the mobility of mobile users and the limited coverage of edge servers can result in significant network performance degradation, dramatic drop in QoS, and even interruption of ongoing edge services; therefore, it is difficult to ensure service continuity. Service migration has great potential to address the issues, which decides when or where these services are migrated following user mobility and the changes of demand. In this paper, two conceptions similar to service migration, i.e., live migration for data centers and handover in cellular networks, are first discussed. Next, the cutting-edge research efforts on service migration in MEC are reviewed, and a devisal of taxonomy based on various research directions for efficient service migration is presented. Subsequently, a summary of three technologies for hosting services on edge servers, i.e., virtual machine, container, and agent, is provided. At last, open research challenges in service migration are identified and discussed.

Heavy data load and wide cover range have always been crucial problems for big data processing in Internet of Things (IoT). Recently, mobile-edge computing (MEC) and unmanned aerial vehicle base stations (UAV-BSs) have emerged as promising techniques in IoT. In this article, we propose a three-layer online data processing network based on the MEC technique. On the bottom layer, raw data are generated by distributed sensors with local information. Upon them, UAV-BSs are deployed as moving MEC servers, which collect data and conduct initial steps of data processing. On top of them, a center cloud receives processed results and conducts further evaluation. For online processing requirements, the edge nodes should stabilize delay to ensure data freshness. Furthermore, limited onboard energy poses constraints to edge processing capability. In this article, we propose an online edge processing scheduling algorithm based on Lyapunov optimization. In cases of low data rate, it tends to reduce edge processor frequency for saving energy. In the presence of a high data rate, it will smartly allocate bandwidth for edge data offloading. Meanwhile, hovering UAV-BSs bring a large and flexible service coverage, which results in a path planning issue. In this article, we also consider this problem and apply deep reinforcement learning to develop an online path planning algorithm. Taking observations of around environment as an input, a CNN network is trained to predict action rewards. By simulations, we validate its effectiveness in enhancing service coverage. The result will contribute to big data processing in future IoT.

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is considered an essential future service for the implementation of 5G networks and the Internet of Things, as it is the best method of delivering computation and communication resources to mobile devices. It is based on the connection of the users to servers located on the edge of the network, which is especially relevant for real-time applications that demand minimal latency. In order to guarantee a resource-efficient MEC (which, for example, could mean improved Quality of Service for users or lower costs for service providers), it is important to consider certain aspects of the service model, such as where to offload the tasks generated by the devices, how many resources to allocate to each user (specially in the wired or wireless device-server communication) and how to handle inter-server communication. However, in the MEC scenarios with many and varied users, servers and applications, these problems are characterized by parameters with exceedingly high levels of dimensionality, resulting in too much data to be processed and complicating the task of finding efficient configurations. This will be particularly troublesome when 5G networks and Internet of Things roll out, with their massive amounts of devices. To address this concern, the best solution is to utilize Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, which enable the computer to draw conclusions and make predictions based on existing data without human supervision, leading to quick near-optimal solutions even in problems with high dimensionality. Indeed, in scenarios with too much data and too many parameters, ML algorithms are often the only feasible alternative. In this paper, a comprehensive survey on the use of ML in MEC systems is provided, offering an insight into the current progress of this research area. Furthermore, helpful guidance is supplied by pointing out which MEC challenges can be solved by ML solutions, what are the current trending algorithms in frontier ML research and how they could be used in MEC. These pieces of information should prove fundamental in encouraging future research that combines ML and MEC.

With the growing prevalence of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and technology, a burgeoning computing paradigm namely mobile edge computing (MEC) is delicately proposed and designed to accommodate the application requirements of IoT scenario. In this paper, we focus on the problems of dynamic task scheduling and resource management in MEC environment, with the specific objective of achieving the optimal revenue earned by edge service providers. While the majority of task scheduling and resource management algorithms are formulated by an integer programming (IP) problem and solved in a dispreferred NP-hard manner, we innovatively investigate the problem structure and identify a favorable property namely totally unimodular constraints. The totally unimodular property further helps to design an equivalent linear programming (LP) problem which can be efficiently and elegantly solved at polynomial computational complexity. In order to evaluate our proposed approach, we conduct simulations based on real-life IoT dataset to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.

LoRaWAN represents a promising Internet of things (IoT) technology that has recently gained high a market and academic interest. With the recent advances in sensory manufacturing, the number of connected devices increases dramatically and thus, a reliable IoT system able to provide the coverage for such system becomes a high demand. This paper proposed a reliable LoRaWAN architecture for ultra-dense IoT networks. The mobile edge computing is proposed to provide the computing and energy resources at the edge of the access LoRa network, while the software defined networking (SDN) is deployed at the core network to manage and control the whole network traffic. The novelty of the proposed system comes from the deploying of a distributed version of the SDN controller at the edge servers, to reduce the load on the core network. The system is simulated for various simulation scenarios and the results validate the proposed structure for ultra-dense and ultra-low latency IoT networks.