This article proposes a novel chunk-based caching scheme known as the Progressive Popularity-Aware Caching Scheme (PPCS) to improve content availability and eliminate the cache redundancy issue of Information-Centric Networking (ICN). Particularly, the proposal considers both entire-object caching and partial-progressive caching for popular and non-popular content objects, respectively. In the case that the content is not popular enough, PPCS first caches initial chunks of the content at the edge node and then progressively continues caching subsequent chunks at upstream Content Nodes (CNs) along the delivery path over time, according to the content popularity and each CN position. Therefore, PPCS efficiently avoids wasting cache space for storing on-path content duplicates and improves cache diversity by allowing no more than one replica of a specified content to be cached. To enable a complete ICN caching solution for communication networks, we also propose an autonomous replacement policy to optimize the cache utilization by maximizing the utility of each CN from caching content items. By simulation, we show that PPCS, utilizing edge-computing for the joint optimization of caching decision and replacement policies, considerably outperforms relevant existing ICN caching strategies in terms of latency (number of hops), cache redundancy, and content availability (hit rate), especially when the CN’s cache size is small.

The exponential proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and optical IoT (O-IoT) has introduced substantial challenges concerning computational capacity and energy efficiency. IoT devices generate vast volumes of aggregated data and require intensive processing, often resulting in elevated latency and excessive energy consumption. Task offloading has emerged as a viable solution; however, many existing strategies fail to adequately optimize both latency and energy usage. This paper proposes a novel task-offloading approach based on deep Q-network (DQN) learning, designed to intelligently and dynamically balance these critical metrics. The proposed framework continuously refines real-time task offloading decisions by leveraging the adaptive learning capabilities of DQN, thereby substantially reducing latency and energy consumption. To further enhance system performance, the framework incorporates optical networks into the IoT–fog–cloud architecture, capitalizing on their high-bandwidth and low-latency characteristics. This integration facilitates more efficient distribution and processing of tasks, particularly in data-intensive IoT applications. Additionally, we present a comparative analysis between the proposed DQN algorithm and the optimal strategy. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate the superior effectiveness of the proposed DQN framework across various IoT and O-IoT scenarios compared to the BAT and DJA approaches, achieving improvements in energy consumption and latency of 35%, 50%, 30%, and 40%, respectively. These findings underscore the significance of selecting an appropriate offloading strategy tailored to the specific requirements of IoT and O-IoT applications, particularly with regard to environmental stability and performance demands.

In this paper, we investigate the optimal solution of power savings for femtocell cluster deployments in the sleep mode involved macro-femto two-tier scenarios. The proposed scheme aims at achieving high SINR with optimal transmit power of femto access point (FAP) by coordinating downlink cross-tier interference and intra-interference with utility and traffic based power control (UTPC) when macro base station (MBS) is under sleep activation. Since the optimal radius of femtocells can be obtained according to dynamic coverage extension, several sleep patterns can be defined for open access permitted hybrid femtocells. In this case, more FAPs can be switched into sleep mode and managed by the main active FAPs in the cluster. As a result, the number of active femtocells can be controlled in accordance with dynamic cell configurations, which can effectively reduce the energy impact of the femtocell cluster. The simulation results show that our proposed scheme enable positive influence on power efficiency and interference coordination for femtocell cluster in the two-tier heterogeneous networks, especially during the night zone.

Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) is challenging due to its extremely higher reliability requirement with stringent short latency packet transmission. In order to overcome this reliability and latency bound, a communication access scheme needs to assure almost error-free and high speed packet transmission. In this paper, a new multiple-access scheme—Orthogonal Frequency-Subcarrier-based Multiple Access (OFSMA)—is proposed with URLLC’s high requirement adaptation. In this scheme, the packet diversity concept is incorporated to achieve the expected packet transmission reliability and a diverse number of the duplicated packet are processed with a set of operations and transmitted over randomly selected orthogonal subcarrier frequency channels. Performances of the OFSMA system are measured in terms of applying several numbers of frequency bands, a massive number of subcarrier channels, a different number of packet duplications, and a diverse rate of traffic arrival conditions. We determined the minimum number of subcarrier channels requirement to satisfy the reliability of 99.999% for different packet duplication in presence of different frequency bands. The reliability response for a fixed number of subcarrier channels is evaluated for different frequency band conditions. Finally, the air interface latency of the OFSMA system is measured for single packet uplink transmission and compared with that of a traditional OFDMA system. The performance results in terms of reliability and latency express that the OFSMA scheme can assure the expected reliability and latency defined by URLLC.

The diverse architectural evolution and intensive data explosion in the forthcoming 5G will have severe impacts on providing seamless and robust mobility management. In this paper, P-persistent energy-aware handover (HO) decision strategies with mobility robustness are proposed both for intra-handover cases while a femto user equipment (FUE) roams into another femto access point (FAP) and for cross-tier handover cases while a macro user equipment (MUE)/FUE roams into/out of a FAP in a dynamic cell sizing involving macro-femto two-tier networks. To approximate the densely deployed small-cells, a unique RF fingerprint (RFF)-based localization is employed to enable efficient small-cell detection by an RFF matching mechanism. The prediction of the HO trigger is jointly determined by a P-persistent decision mechanism that formulates the specific HO behaviors when a MUE/FUE roams into (HO-in) and out of (HO-out) a femtocell in terms of the correlated coverage variance and UE trajectory features, whereas the target selection follows a utility function in consideration of the UE traveling time and the achievable throughput. The closed-form stationary probabilities of the proposed VHO/HHO decisions are analyzed by a Semi-Markov-based framework. In addition, an adjustable sensing mechanism with dynamic intervals is proposed when UE is located far from the RFF matching region, which can have a positive influence on reducing unnecessary UE energy consumption. Numerical results are presented for the decision accuracy analyses (too early, too late, and ping-pong HOs), energyefficiency and resource utilization of the two-tier system. The comprehensive evaluations indicate that the proposed scheme can enhance the mobility robustness and enable an optimal trade-off between the energy efficiency (EE) and system capacity while eliminating the architectural impacts caused by the dynamic topology and the dense deployment for the next-generation macrofemto two-tier networks.