With files proactively stored at base stations (BSs), mobile edge caching enables direct content delivery without remote file fetching, which can reduce the end-to-end delay while relieving backhaul pressure. To effectively utilize the limited cache size in practice, cooperative caching can be leveraged to exploit caching diversity, by allowing users served by multiple base stations under the emerging user-centric network architecture. This paper explores delay-optimal cooperative edge caching in large-scale user-centric mobile networks, where the content placement and cluster size are optimized based on the stochastic information of network topology, traffic distribution, channel quality, and file popularity. Specifically, a greedy content placement algorithm is proposed based on the optimal bandwidth allocation, which can achieve (1 - 1/e)-optimality with linear computational complexity. In addition, the optimal user-centric cluster size is studied, and a condition constraining the maximal cluster size is presented in explicit form, which reflects the tradeoff between caching diversity and spectrum efficiency. Extensive simulations are conducted for analysis validation and performance evaluation. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed greedy content placement algorithm can reduce the average file transmission delay up to 45 percent compared with the non-cooperative and hit-ratio-maximal schemes. Furthermore, the optimal clustering is also discussed considering the influences of different system parameters.

Mobile edge caching aims to enable content delivery within the radio access network, which effectively alleviates the backhaul burden and reduces response time. To fully exploit edge storage resources, the most popular contents should be identified and cached. Observing that user demands on certain contents vary greatly at different locations, this paper devises location-customized caching schemes to maximize the total content hit rate. Specifically, a linear model is used to estimate the future content hit rate. For the case with zero-mean noise, a ridge regression-based online algorithm with positive perturbation is proposed. Regret analysis indicates that the hit rate achieved by the proposed algorithm asymptotically approaches that of the optimal caching strategy in the long run. When the noise structure is unknown, an H _∞ filter-based online algorithm is devised by taking a prescribed threshold as input, which guarantees prediction accuracy even under the worst-case noise process. Both online algorithms require no training phases and, hence, are robust to the time-varying user demands. The estimation errors of both algorithms are numerically analyzed. Moreover, extensive experiments using real-world datasets are conducted to validate the applicability of the proposed algorithms. It is demonstrated that those algorithms can be applied to scenarios with different noise features, and are able to make adaptive caching decisions, achieving a content hit rate that is comparable to that via the hindsight optimal strategy.

Space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGIN) extend the capability of wireless networks and will be the essential building block for many advanced applications, like autonomous driving, earth monitoring, and etc. However, coordinating heterogeneous physical resources is very challenging in such a largescale dynamic network. In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable service provisioning framework based on service function chaining (SFC) for SAGIN. In SFC, the network functions are virtualized and the service data needs to flow through specific network functions in a predefined sequence. The inherent issue is how to plan the service function chains over large-scale heterogeneous networks, subject to the resource limitations of both communication and computation. Specifically, we must jointly consider the virtual network functions (VNFs) embedding and service data routing. We formulate the SFC planning problem as an integer non-linear programming problem, which is NPhard. Then, a heuristic greedy algorithm is proposed, which concentrates on leveraging different features of aerial and ground nodes and balancing the resource consumptions. Furthermore, a new metric, aggregation ratio (AR) is proposed to elaborate the communication-computation tradeoff. Extensive simulations shows that our proposed algorithm achieves near-optimal performance. We also find that the SAGIN significantly reduces the service blockage probability and improves the efficiency of resource utilization. Finally, a case study on multiple intersection traffic scheduling is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed SFC-based service provisioning framework.

Space–air–ground-integrated networks (SAGINs) are deemed as a promising solution to support multifarious Internet of Vehicles (IoV) services with diversified Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements in future communication networks. Network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) are two complementary and promising technologies to reduce the function provisioning cost and coordinate the heterogeneous physical resources in SAGIN. In this article, we investigate the online dynamic virtual network function (VNF) mapping and scheduling in SAGIN, considering the dynamicity of IoV services. The VNF live migration, VNF reinstantiation, and VNF rescheduling are enabled to increase the service acceptance ratio and service provider’s profits. Considering the heterogeneity of space, air, and ground nodes, we first model the migration cost and additional delay incurred by VNF live migration and reinstantiation. We then formulate the dynamic VNF mapping and scheduling jointly as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem with specified cost and delay models. We propose two Tabu search (TS)-based algorithms, i.e., TS-based VNF remapping and rescheduling (TS-MAPSCH) algorithm and TS-based pure VNF rescheduling (TS-PSCH) algorithm, to obtain suboptimal solutions to the MILP problem efficiently. Simulation results show that the proposed solution is very close to the optimum and that the proposed dynamic algorithms outperform existing works with respect to multiple performance metrics, including the service provider’s profit, service acceptance ratio, and QoS satisfaction level.

In this paper, a dynamic radio resource slicing framework is presented for a two-tier heterogeneous wireless network. Through software-defined networking-enabled wireless network function virtualization, radio spectrum resources of heterogeneous wireless networks are partitioned into different bandwidth slices for different base stations (BSs). This framework facilitates spectrum sharing among heterogeneous BSs and achieves differentiated quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning for data service and machine-to-machine service in the presence of network load dynamics. To determine the set of optimal bandwidth slicing ratios and optimal BS-device association patterns, a network utility maximization problem is formulated with the consideration of different traffic statistics and QoS requirements, location distribution for end devices, varying device locations, load conditions in each cell, and intercell interference. For tractability, the optimization problem is transformed to a biconcave maximization problem. An alternative concave search (ACS) algorithm is then designed to solve for a set of partial optimal solutions. Simulation results verify the convergence property and display low complexity of the ACS algorithm. It is demonstrated that the proposed radio resource slicing framework outperforms the two other resource slicing schemes in terms of low communication overhead, high spectrum utilization, and high aggregate network utility.

Mobile edge computing is emerging as a new computing paradigm that provides enhanced experience to mobile users via low latency connections and augmented computation capacity. As the amount of user requests is time-varying, while the computation capacity of edge hosts is limited, the Cloud Assisted Mobile Edge (CAME) computing framework is introduced to improve the scalability of the edge platform. By outsourcing mobile requests to clouds with various types of instances, the CAME framework can accommodate dynamic mobile requests with diverse quality of service requirements. In order to provide guaranteed services at minimal system cost, the edge resource provisioning and cloud outsourcing of the CAME framework should be carefully designed in a cost-efficient manner. Specifically, two fundamental problems should be answered: (1) What is the optimal edge computation capacity configuration? (2) What types of cloud instances should be tenanted and what is the amount of each type? To solve these issues, we formulate the resource provisioning in CAME framework as an optimization problem. By exploiting the piecewise convex property of this problem, the Optimal Resource Provisioning (ORP) algorithms with different instances are developed, so as to optimize the computation capacity of edge hosts and meanwhile dynamically adjust the cloud tenancy strategy. The proposed algorithms are proved to be with polynomial computational complexity. To evaluate the performance of the ORP algorithms, extensive simulations and experiments are conducted based on both widely-used traffic models and Google cluster usage tracelogs, respectively. It is shown that the proposed ORP algorithms outperform the local-first and cloud-first benchmark algorithms in system flexibility and cost-efficiency.