In the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), resource-constrained mobile edge computing (MEC) can no longer fully meet the needs of the rapidly growing number of mobile users; hence, cloud-edge collaborative computing has been developed. This paper focuses on the total energy consumption of the system and heterogeneity of scenarios, and a collaborative cloud-edge computation offloading approach with near real-time decision making is proposed. First, a general cloud-edge collaborative computation offloading model is abstracted from typical applications, and the energy consumption for edge and cloud offloading is calculated separately by considering both transmission and computational energy consumption. The problem is formulated as an integer linear program (ILP) with multidimensional resource constraints and is proven to be NP-hard. Then, a novel primal-dual computation offloading (PDCO) algorithm is designed to make near real-time offloading decisions one by one based on the sequential arrival of task requests. The approximation ratio of PDCO is derived through the weak duality property and the price-resource increment relationship. The experimental results show that under the guidance of total cost influenced by marginal prices, PDCO not only avoids blindly making offloading decisions but also effectively alleviates the shortage of resources on edge servers (ESs), approaching the optimal performance in terms of total energy consumption and resource utilization.
27 December 2022 in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
Mobile crowdsensing services are divided into two categories: opportunistic and participatory. In opportunistic mobile crowdsensing services, users do not need to specify the crowdsensing tasks to be completed. Compared with participatory crowdsensing services, the application scope is wider and more user-friendly. In participatory crowdsensing, the service provider assumes that the user can successfully complete the data collection task. However, such an approach cannot work in an opportunistic crowdsensing service because in opportunistic crowdsensing, the user’s execution of the task is uncertain, which brings great challenges to the quality of the crowdsensing service. This article is based on the assumption of the user coverage probability model and transforms the opportunistic mobile crowdsensing value maximization problem into an ordered submodularity value function model with budget constraints. This model is also good at representing participatory crowdsourcing problems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the ordered submodularity feature to a mobile crowdsensing service. Furthermore, we combine the properties of ordered submodular and auction models and propose an ordered submodularity-proportional share mechanism (O-PSM) to solve the allocation and payment problems in opportunistic mobile crowdsensing services. Specifically, in the allocation stage, the winning users are selected based on the proportional share threshold, and in the payment stage, the payment price for the winning users is designed based on critical value theory. We prove that the mechanism satisfies the economic characteristics of individual rationality, truthfulness, and budget feasibility. In the experimental section, the mechanism design based on ordered submodularity is shown to enable the service provider to obtain a higher value and a lower payment.