Air-Ground Collaborative Mobile Edge Computing:Architecture,Challenges,and Opportunities

By pushing computation,cache,and network control to the edge,mobile edge computing(MEC)is expected to play a leading role in fifth generation(5G)and future sixth generation(6G).Nevertheless,facing ubiquitous fast-growing computational demands,it is impossible for a single MEC paradigm to effectively support high-quality intelligent services at end user equipments(UEs).To address this issue,we propose an air-ground collaborative MEC(AGCMEC)architecture in this article.The proposed AGCMEC integrates all potentially available MEC servers within air and ground in the envisioned 6G,by a variety of collaborative ways to provide computation services at their best for UEs.Firstly,we introduce the AGC-MEC architecture and elaborate three typical use cases.Then,we discuss four main challenges in the AGC-MEC as well as their potential solutions.Next,we conduct a case study of collaborative service placement for AGC-MEC to validate the effectiveness of the proposed collaborative service placement strategy.Finally,we highlight several potential research directions of the AGC-MEC.

Anti-Byzantine Attacks Enabled Vehicle Selection for Asynchronous Federated Learning in Vehicular Edge Computing

In vehicle edge computing(VEC),asynchronous federated learning(AFL)is used,where the edge receives a local model and updates the global model,effectively reducing the global aggregation latency.Due to different amounts of local data,computing capabilities and locations of the vehicles,renewing the global model with same weight is inappropriate.The above factors will affect the local calculation time and upload time of the local model,and the vehicle may also be affected by Byzantine attacks,leading to the deterioration of the vehicle data.However,based on deep reinforcement learning(DRL),we can consider these factors comprehensively to eliminate vehicles with poor performance as much as possible and exclude vehicles that have suffered Byzantine attacks before AFL.At the same time,when aggregating AFL,we can focus on those vehicles with better performance to improve the accuracy and safety of the system.In this paper,we proposed a vehicle selection scheme based on DRL in VEC.In this scheme,vehicle’s mobility,channel conditions with temporal variations,computational resources with temporal variations,different data amount,transmission channel status of vehicles as well as Byzantine attacks were taken into account.Simulation results show that the proposed scheme effectively improves the safety and accuracy of the global model.

Security Implications of Edge Computing in Cloud Networks

Security issues in cloud networks and edge computing have become very common. This research focuses on analyzing such issues and developing the best solutions. A detailed literature review has been conducted in this regard. The findings have shown that many challenges are linked to edge computing, such as privacy concerns, security breaches, high costs, low efficiency, etc. Therefore, there is a need to implement proper security measures to overcome these issues. Using emerging trends, like machine learning, encryption, artificial intelligence, real-time monitoring, etc., can help mitigate security issues. They can also develop a secure and safe future in cloud computing. It was concluded that the security implications of edge computing can easily be covered with the help of new technologies and techniques.

For Mega-Constellations: Edge Computing and Safety Management Based on Blockchain Technology

In mega-constellation Communication Systems, efficient routing algorithms and data transmission technologies are employed to ensure fast and reliable data transfer. However, the limited computational resources of satellites necessitate the use of edge computing to enhance secure communication.While edge computing reduces the burden on cloud computing, it introduces security and reliability challenges in open satellite communication channels. To address these challenges, we propose a blockchain architecture specifically designed for edge computing in mega-constellation communication systems. This architecture narrows down the consensus scope of the blockchain to meet the requirements of edge computing while ensuring comprehensive log storage across the network. Additionally, we introduce a reputation management mechanism for nodes within the blockchain, evaluating their trustworthiness, workload, and efficiency. Nodes with higher reputation scores are selected to participate in tasks and are appropriately incentivized. Simulation results demonstrate that our approach achieves a task result reliability of 95% while improving computational speed.

Online Learning-Based Offloading Decision and Resource Allocation in Mobile Edge Computing-Enabled Satellite-Terrestrial Networks

Mobile edge computing(MEC)-enabled satellite-terrestrial networks(STNs)can provide Internet of Things(IoT)devices with global computing services.Sometimes,the network state information is uncertain or unknown.To deal with this situation,we investigate online learning-based offloading decision and resource allocation in MEC-enabled STNs in this paper.The problem of minimizing the average sum task completion delay of all IoT devices over all time periods is formulated.We decompose this optimization problem into a task offloading decision problem and a computing resource allocation problem.A joint optimization scheme of offloading decision and resource allocation is then proposed,which consists of a task offloading decision algorithm based on the devices cooperation aided upper confidence bound(UCB)algorithm and a computing resource allocation algorithm based on the Lagrange multiplier method.Simulation results validate that the proposed scheme performs better than other baseline schemes.

Secure Computation Efficiency Resource Allocation for Massive MIMO-Enabled Mobile Edge Computing Networks

In this article,the secure computation efficiency(SCE)problem is studied in a massive multipleinput multiple-output(mMIMO)-assisted mobile edge computing(MEC)network.We first derive the secure transmission rate based on the mMIMO under imperfect channel state information.Based on this,the SCE maximization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing the local computation frequency,the offloading time,the downloading time,the users and the base station transmit power.Due to its difficulty to directly solve the formulated problem,we first transform the fractional objective function into the subtractive form one via the dinkelbach method.Next,the original problem is transformed into a convex one by applying the successive convex approximation technique,and an iteration algorithm is proposed to obtain the solutions.Finally,the stimulations are conducted to show that the performance of the proposed schemes is superior to that of the other schemes.

Redundant Data Detection and Deletion to Meet Privacy Protection Requirements in Blockchain-Based Edge Computing Environment

With the rapid development of information technology,IoT devices play a huge role in physiological health data detection.The exponential growth of medical data requires us to reasonably allocate storage space for cloud servers and edge nodes.The storage capacity of edge nodes close to users is limited.We should store hotspot data in edge nodes as much as possible,so as to ensure response timeliness and access hit rate;However,the current scheme cannot guarantee that every sub-message in a complete data stored by the edge node meets the requirements of hot data;How to complete the detection and deletion of redundant data in edge nodes under the premise of protecting user privacy and data dynamic integrity has become a challenging problem.Our paper proposes a redundant data detection method that meets the privacy protection requirements.By scanning the cipher text,it is determined whether each sub-message of the data in the edge node meets the requirements of the hot data.It has the same effect as zero-knowledge proof,and it will not reveal the privacy of users.In addition,for redundant sub-data that does not meet the requirements of hot data,our paper proposes a redundant data deletion scheme that meets the dynamic integrity of the data.We use Content Extraction Signature(CES)to generate the remaining hot data signature after the redundant data is deleted.The feasibility of the scheme is proved through safety analysis and efficiency analysis.

SCIRD: Revealing Infection of Malicious Software in Edge Computing-Enabled IoT Networks

The Internet of Things(IoT)has characteristics such as node mobility,node heterogeneity,link heterogeneity,and topology heterogeneity.In the face of the IoT characteristics and the explosive growth of IoT nodes,which brings about large-scale data processing requirements,edge computing architecture has become an emerging network architecture to support IoT applications due to its ability to provide powerful computing capabilities and good service functions.However,the defense mechanism of Edge Computing-enabled IoT Nodes(ECIoTNs)is still weak due to their limited resources,so that they are susceptible to malicious software spread,which can compromise data confidentiality and network service availability.Facing this situation,we put forward an epidemiology-based susceptible-curb-infectious-removed-dead(SCIRD)model.Then,we analyze the dynamics of ECIoTNs with different infection levels under different initial conditions to obtain the dynamic differential equations.Additionally,we establish the presence of equilibrium states in the SCIRD model.Furthermore,we conduct an analysis of the model’s stability and examine the conditions under which malicious software will either spread or disappear within Edge Computing-enabled IoT(ECIoT)networks.Lastly,we validate the efficacy and superiority of the SCIRD model through MATLAB simulations.These research findings offer a theoretical foundation for suppressing the propagation of malicious software in ECIoT networks.The experimental results indicate that the theoretical SCIRD model has instructive significance,deeply revealing the principles of malicious software propagation in ECIoT networks.This study solves a challenging security problem of ECIoT networks by determining the malicious software propagation threshold,which lays the foundation for buildingmore secure and reliable ECIoT networks.

Deployment of Edge Computing Nodes in IoT:Effective Implementation of Simulated Annealing Method Based on User Location

Edge computing paradigm for 5G architecture has been considered as one of the most effective ways to realize low latency and highly reliable communication,which brings computing tasks and network resources to the edge of network.The deployment of edge computing nodes is a key factor affecting the service performance of edge computing systems.In this paper,we propose a method for deploying edge computing nodes based on user location.Through the combination of Simulation of Urban Mobility(SUMO)and Network Simulator-3(NS-3),a simulation platform is built to generate data of hotspot areas in Io T scenario.By effectively using the data generated by the communication between users in Io T scenario,the location area of the user terminal can be obtained.On this basis,the deployment problem is expressed as a mixed integer linear problem,which can be solved by Simulated Annealing(SA)method.The analysis of the results shows that,compared with the traditional method,the proposed method has faster convergence speed and better performance.

Quantum-Edge Cloud Computing for IoT: Bridging the Gap between Cloud, Edge, and Quantum Technologies

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has driven the need for advanced computational frameworks capable of handling the complex data processing and security challenges that modern IoT applications demand. However, traditional cloud computing frameworks face significant latency, scalability, and security issues. Quantum-Edge Cloud Computing (QECC) offers an innovative solution by integrating the computational power of quantum computing with the low-latency advantages of edge computing and the scalability of cloud computing resources. This study is grounded in an extensive literature review, performance improvements, and metrics data from Bangladesh, focusing on smart city infrastructure, healthcare monitoring, and the industrial IoT sector. The discussion covers vital elements, including integrating quantum cryptography to enhance data security, the critical role of edge computing in reducing response times, and cloud computing’s ability to support large-scale IoT networks with its extensive resources. Through case studies such as the application of quantum sensors in autonomous vehicles, the practical impact of QECC is demonstrated. Additionally, the paper outlines future research opportunities, including developing quantum-resistant encryption techniques and optimizing quantum algorithms for edge computing. The convergence of these technologies in QECC has the potential to overcome the current limitations of IoT frameworks, setting a new standard for future IoT applications.

UAV-assisted cooperative offloading energy efficiency system for mobile edge computing

Reliable communication and intensive computing power cannot be provided effectively by temporary hot spots in disaster areas and complex terrain ground infrastructure.Mitigating this has greatly developed the application and integration of UAV and Mobile Edge Computing(MEC)to the Internet of Things(loT).However,problems such as multi-user and huge data flow in large areas,which contradict the reality that a single UAV is constrained by limited computing power,still exist.Due to allowing UAV collaboration to accomplish complex tasks,cooperative task offloading between multiple UAVs must meet the interdependence of tasks and realize parallel processing,which reduces the computing power consumption and endurance pressure of terminals.Considering the computing requirements of the user terminal,delay constraint of a computing task,energy constraint,and safe distance of UAV,we constructed a UAV-Assisted cooperative offloading energy efficiency system for mobile edge computing to minimize user terminal energy consumption.However,the resulting optimization problem is originally nonconvex and thus,difficult to solve optimally.To tackle this problem,we developed an energy efficiency optimization algorithm using Block Coordinate Descent(BCD)that decomposes the problem into three convex subproblems.Furthermore,we jointly optimized the number of local computing tasks,number of computing offloaded tasks,trajectories of UAV,and offloading matching relationship between multi-UAVs and multiuser terminals.Simulation results show that the proposed approach is suitable for different channel conditions and significantly saves the user terminal energy consumption compared with other benchmark schemes.

IRS Assisted UAV Communications against Proactive Eavesdropping in Mobile Edge Computing Networks

In this paper,we consider mobile edge computing(MEC)networks against proactive eavesdropping.To maximize the transmission rate,IRS assisted UAV communications are applied.We take the joint design of the trajectory of UAV,the transmitting beamforming of users,and the phase shift matrix of IRS.The original problem is strong non-convex and difficult to solve.We first propose two basic modes of the proactive eavesdropper,and obtain the closed-form solution for the boundary conditions of the two modes.Then we transform the original problem into an equivalent one and propose an alternating optimization(AO)based method to obtain a local optimal solution.The convergence of the algorithm is illustrated by numerical results.Further,we propose a zero forcing(ZF)based method as sub-optimal solution,and the simulation section shows that the proposed two schemes could obtain better performance compared with traditional schemes.

Mobile Edge Computing Towards 5G: Vision, Recent Progress, and Open Challenges

Mobile Edge Computing(MEC) is an emerging technology in 5G era which enables the provision of the cloud and IT services within the close proximity of mobile subscribers.It allows the availability of the cloud servers inside or adjacent to the base station.The endto-end latency perceived by the mobile user is therefore reduced with the MEC platform.The context-aware services are able to be served by the application developers by leveraging the real time radio access network information from MEC.The MEC additionally enables the compute intensive applications execution in the resource constraint devices with the collaborative computing involving the cloud servers.This paper presents the architectural description of the MEC platform as well as the key functionalities enabling the above features.The relevant state-of-the-art research efforts are then surveyed.The paper finally discusses and identifies the open research challenges of MEC.

Mobile Edge Communications, Computing, and Caching(MEC3) Technology in the Maritime Communication Network

With the increasing maritime activities and the rapidly developing maritime economy, the fifth-generation(5G) mobile communication system is expected to be deployed at the ocean. New technologies need to be explored to meet the requirements of ultra-reliable and low latency communications(URLLC) in the maritime communication network(MCN). Mobile edge computing(MEC) can achieve high energy efficiency in MCN at the cost of suffering from high control plane latency and low reliability. In terms of this issue, the mobile edge communications, computing, and caching(MEC3) technology is proposed to sink mobile computing, network control, and storage to the edge of the network. New methods that enable resource-efficient configurations and reduce redundant data transmissions can enable the reliable implementation of computing-intension and latency-sensitive applications. The key technologies of MEC3 to enable URLLC are analyzed and optimized in MCN. The best response-based offloading algorithm(BROA) is adopted to optimize task offloading. The simulation results show that the task latency can be decreased by 26.5’ ms, and the energy consumption in terminal users can be reduced to 66.6%.

Edge computing technologies for Internet of Things： a primer

with the rapid development of mobile intemet and Internet of Things applications, the conventional centralized cloud computing is encountering severe challenges, such as high latency, low Spectral Efficiency （SE）, and nonadaptive machine type of communication. Motivated to solve these challenges, a new technology is driving a trend that shifts the function of centralized cloud computing to edge devices of networks. Several edge computing technologies originating from different backgrounds to decrease latency, improve SE, and support the massive machine type of communication have been emerging. This paper comprehensively presents a tutorial on three typical edge computing technologies, namely mobile edge computing, cloudlets, and fog computing. In particular, the standardization efforts, principles, architectures, and applications of these three technologies are summarized and compared. From the viewpoint of radio access network, the differences between mobile edge computing and fog computing are highlighted, and the characteristics of fog computing-based radio access network are discussed. Finally, open issues and future research directions are identified as well.

A Privacy-Preserving Mechanism Based on Local Differential Privacy in Edge Computing

With the development of Internet of Things(IoT),the delay caused by network transmission has led to low data processing efficiency.At the same time,the limited computing power and available energy consumption of IoT terminal devices are also the important bottlenecks that would restrict the application of blockchain,but edge computing could solve this problem.The emergence of edge computing can effectively reduce the delay of data transmission and improve data processing capacity.However,user data in edge computing is usually stored and processed in some honest-but-curious authorized entities,which leads to the leakage of users’privacy information.In order to solve these problems,this paper proposes a location data collection method that satisfies the local differential privacy to protect users’privacy.In this paper,a Voronoi diagram constructed by the Delaunay method is used to divide the road network space and determine the Voronoi grid region where the edge nodes are located.A random disturbance mechanism that satisfies the local differential privacy is utilized to disturb the original location data in each Voronoi grid.In addition,the effectiveness of the proposed privacy-preserving mechanism is verified through comparison experiments.Compared with the existing privacy-preserving methods,the proposed privacy-preserving mechanism can not only better meet users’privacy needs,but also have higher data availability.

Recent advances in mobile edge computing and content caching

The demand for digital media services is increasing as the number of wireless subscriptions is growing exponentially.In order to meet this growing need,mobile wireless networks have been advanced at a tremendous pace over recent days.However,the centralized architecture of existing mobile networks,with limited capacity and range of bandwidth of the radio access network and low bandwidth back-haul network,can not handle the exponentially increasing mobile traffic.Recently,we have seen the growth of new mechanisms of data caching and delivery methods through intermediate caching servers.In this paper,we present a survey on recent advances in mobile edge computing and content caching,including caching insertion and expulsion policies,the behavior of the caching system,and caching optimization based on wireless networks.Some of the important open challenges in mobile edge computing with content caching are identified and discussed.We have also compared edge,fog and cloud computing in terms of delay.Readers of this paper will get a thorough understanding of recent advances in mobile edge computing and content caching in mobile wireless networks.

Key Technologies and Application of Edge Computing

Cloud computing faces a series of challenges,such as insufficient bandwidth,unsatisfactory real-time,privacy protection,and energy consumption.To overcome the challenges,edge computing emerges.Edge computing refers to a process where the open platform that converges the core capabilities of networks,computing,storage,and applications provides intelligent services at the network edge near the source of the objects or data to meet the critical requirements for agile connection,real-time services,data optimization,application intelligence,security and privacy protection of industry digitization.Edge computing consists of three elements:edge,computing,and intelligence.Edge computing and the Internet of Things(IoT)mutually create,and edge computing and cloud computing complement each other.In the architecture of edge computing,resources are distributed to the edge nodes,and therefore the storage system is near users while the computation function is near data.In this way,the stress on the backbone network can be lessened.With this architecture,the existing key technologies for computation,networks,and storage will change significantly.ZTE’s edge computing solutions can ensure the service quality of operators and greatly enhance the experience of mobile users.

DL-HAR: Deep Learning-Based Human Activity Recognition Framework for Edge Computing

Human activity recognition is commonly used in several Internet of Things applications to recognize different contexts and respond to them.Deep learning has gained momentum for identifying activities through sensors,smartphones or even surveillance cameras.However,it is often difficult to train deep learning models on constrained IoT devices.The focus of this paper is to propose an alternative model by constructing a Deep Learning-based Human Activity Recognition framework for edge computing,which we call DL-HAR.The goal of this framework is to exploit the capabilities of cloud computing to train a deep learning model and deploy it on less-powerful edge devices for recognition.The idea is to conduct the training of the model in the Cloud and distribute it to the edge nodes.We demonstrate how the DL-HAR can perform human activity recognition at the edge while improving efficiency and accuracy.In order to evaluate the proposed framework,we conducted a comprehensive set of experiments to validate the applicability of DL-HAR.Experimental results on the benchmark dataset show a significant increase in performance compared with the state-of-the-art models.

Task Offloading in Edge Computing Using GNNs and DQN

In a network environment composed of different types of computing centers that can be divided into different layers(clod,edge layer,and others),the interconnection between them offers the possibility of peer-to-peer task offloading.For many resource-constrained devices,the computation of many types of tasks is not feasible because they cannot support such computations as they do not have enough available memory and processing capacity.In this scenario,it is worth considering transferring these tasks to resource-rich platforms,such as Edge Data Centers or remote cloud servers.For different reasons,it is more exciting and appropriate to download various tasks to specific download destinations depending on the properties and state of the environment and the nature of the functions.At the same time,establishing an optimal offloading policy,which ensures that all tasks are executed within the required latency and avoids excessive workload on specific computing centers is not easy.This study presents two alternatives to solve the offloading decision paradigm by introducing two well-known algorithms,Graph Neural Networks(GNN)and Deep Q-Network(DQN).It applies the alternatives on a well-known Edge Computing simulator called PureEdgeSimand compares them with the two defaultmethods,Trade-Off and Round Robin.Experiments showed that variants offer a slight improvement in task success rate and workload distribution.In terms of energy efficiency,they provided similar results.Finally,the success rates of different computing centers are tested,and the lack of capacity of remote cloud servers to respond to applications in real-time is demonstrated.These novel ways of finding a download strategy in a local networking environment are unique as they emulate the state and structure of the environment innovatively,considering the quality of its connections and constant updates.The download score defined in this research is a crucial feature for determining the quality of a download path in the GNN training process and has not previously been proposed.Simultaneously,the suitability of Reinforcement Learning(RL)techniques is demonstrated due to the dynamism of the network environment,considering all the key factors that affect the decision to offload a given task,including the actual state of all devices.