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.

Multiframe-integrated, in-sensor computing using persistent photoconductivity

The utilization of processing capabilities within the detector holds significant promise in addressing energy consumption and latency challenges. Especially in the context of dynamic motion recognition tasks, where substantial data transfers are necessitated by the generation of extensive information and the need for frame-by-frame analysis. Herein, we present a novel approach for dynamic motion recognition, leveraging a spatial-temporal in-sensor computing system rooted in multiframe integration by employing photodetector. Our approach introduced a retinomorphic MoS_(2) photodetector device for motion detection and analysis. The device enables the generation of informative final states, nonlinearly embedding both past and present frames. Subsequent multiply-accumulate (MAC) calculations are efficiently performed as the classifier. When evaluating our devices for target detection and direction classification, we achieved an impressive recognition accuracy of 93.5%. By eliminating the need for frame-by-frame analysis, our system not only achieves high precision but also facilitates energy-efficient in-sensor computing.

Recent Advances in In-Memory Computing:Exploring Memristor and Memtransistor Arrays with 2D Materials

The conventional computing architecture faces substantial chal-lenges,including high latency and energy consumption between memory and processing units.In response,in-memory computing has emerged as a promising alternative architecture,enabling computing operations within memory arrays to overcome these limitations.Memristive devices have gained significant attention as key components for in-memory computing due to their high-density arrays,rapid response times,and ability to emulate biological synapses.Among these devices,two-dimensional(2D)material-based memristor and memtransistor arrays have emerged as particularly promising candidates for next-generation in-memory computing,thanks to their exceptional performance driven by the unique properties of 2D materials,such as layered structures,mechanical flexibility,and the capability to form heterojunctions.This review delves into the state-of-the-art research on 2D material-based memristive arrays,encompassing critical aspects such as material selection,device perfor-mance metrics,array structures,and potential applications.Furthermore,it provides a comprehensive overview of the current challenges and limitations associated with these arrays,along with potential solutions.The primary objective of this review is to serve as a significant milestone in realizing next-generation in-memory computing utilizing 2D materials and bridge the gap from single-device characterization to array-level and system-level implementations of neuromorphic computing,leveraging the potential of 2D material-based memristive devices.

Fabrication and integration of photonic devices for phase-change memory and neuromorphic computing

In the past decade,there has been tremendous progress in integrating chalcogenide phase-change materials(PCMs)on the silicon photonic platform for non-volatile memory to neuromorphic in-memory computing applications.In particular,these non von Neumann computational elements and systems benefit from mass manufacturing of silicon photonic integrated circuits(PICs)on 8-inch wafers using a 130 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor line.Chip manufacturing based on deep-ultraviolet lithography and electron-beam lithography enables rapid prototyping of PICs,which can be integrated with high-quality PCMs based on the wafer-scale sputtering technique as a back-end-of-line process.In this article,we present an overview of recent advances in waveguide integrated PCM memory cells,functional devices,and neuromorphic systems,with an emphasis on fabrication and integration processes to attain state-of-the-art device performance.After a short overview of PCM based photonic devices,we discuss the materials properties of the functional layer as well as the progress on the light guiding layer,namely,the silicon and germanium waveguide platforms.Next,we discuss the cleanroom fabrication flow of waveguide devices integrated with thin films and nanowires,silicon waveguides and plasmonic microheaters for the electrothermal switching of PCMs and mixed-mode operation.Finally,the fabrication of photonic and photonic–electronic neuromorphic computing systems is reviewed.These systems consist of arrays of PCM memory elements for associative learning,matrix-vector multiplication,and pattern recognition.With large-scale integration,the neuromorphic photonic computing paradigm holds the promise to outperform digital electronic accelerators by taking the advantages of ultra-high bandwidth,high speed,and energy-efficient operation in running machine learning algorithms.

CRBFT:A Byzantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus Protocol Based on Collaborative Filtering Recommendation for Blockchains

Blockchain has been widely used in finance,the Internet of Things(IoT),supply chains,and other scenarios as a revolutionary technology.Consensus protocol plays a vital role in blockchain,which helps all participants to maintain the storage state consistently.However,with the improvement of network environment complexity and system scale,blockchain development is limited by the performance,security,and scalability of the consensus protocol.To address this problem,this paper introduces the collaborative filtering mechanism commonly used in the recommendation system into the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance(PBFT)and proposes a Byzantine fault-tolerant(BFT)consensus protocol based on collaborative filtering recommendation(CRBFT).Specifically,an improved collaborative filtering recommendation method is designed to use the similarity between a node’s recommendation opinions and those of the recommender as a basis for determining whether to adopt the recommendation opinions.This can amplify the recommendation voice of good nodes,weaken the impact of cunningmalicious nodes on the trust value calculation,andmake the calculated resultsmore accurate.In addition,the nodes are given voting power according to their trust value,and a weight randomelection algorithm is designed and implemented to reduce the risk of attack.The experimental results show that CRBFT can effectively eliminate various malicious nodes and improve the performance of blockchain systems in complex network environments,and the feasibility of CRBFT is also proven by theoretical analysis.

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.

Computing Power Network:A Survey

With the rapid development of cloud computing,edge computing,and smart devices,computing power resources indicate a trend of ubiquitous deployment.The traditional network architecture cannot efficiently leverage these distributed computing power resources due to computing power island effect.To overcome these problems and improve network efficiency,a new network computing paradigm is proposed,i.e.,Computing Power Network(CPN).Computing power network can connect ubiquitous and heterogenous computing power resources through networking to realize computing power scheduling flexibly.In this survey,we make an exhaustive review on the state-of-the-art research efforts on computing power network.We first give an overview of computing power network,including definition,architecture,and advantages.Next,a comprehensive elaboration of issues on computing power modeling,information awareness and announcement,resource allocation,network forwarding,computing power transaction platform and resource orchestration platform is presented.The computing power network testbed is built and evaluated.The applications and use cases in computing power network are discussed.Then,the key enabling technologies for computing power network are introduced.Finally,open challenges and future research directions are presented as well.

Review of Fault-tolerant Control for Motor Inverter Failure with Operational Quality Considered

In recent years,motor drive systems have garnered increasing attention due to their high efficiency and superior control performance.This is especially apparent in aerospace,marine propulsion,and electric vehicles,where high performance,efficiency,and reliability are crucial.The ability of the drive system to maintain long-term fault-tolerant control(FTC)operation after a failure is essential.The likelihood of inverter failures surpasses that of other components in the drive system,highlighting its critical importance.Long-term FTC operation ensures the system retains its fundamental functions until safe repairs or replacements can be made.The focus of developing a FTC strategy has shifted from basic FTC operations to enhancing the post-fault quality to accommodate the realities of prolonged operation post-failure.This paper primarily investigates FTC strategies for inverter failures in various motor drive systems over the past decade.These strategies are categorized into three types based on post-fault operational quality:rescue,remedy,and reestablishment.The paper discusses each typical control strategy and its research focus,the strengths and weaknesses of various algorithms,and recent advancements in FTC.Finally,this review summarizes effective FTC techniques for inverter failures in motor drive systems and suggests directions for future research.

ATSSC:An Attack Tolerant System in Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a promising paradigm in cloud computing that greatly simplifies cloud programming.With serverless computing,developers only provide function code to serverless platform,and these functions are invoked by its driven events.Nonetheless,security threats in serverless computing such as vulnerability-based security threats have become the pain point hindering its wide adoption.The ideas in proactive defense such as redundancy,diversity and dynamic provide promising approaches to protect against cyberattacks.However,these security technologies are mostly applied to serverless platform based on“stacked”mode,as they are designed independent with serverless computing.The lack of security consideration in the initial design makes it especially challenging to achieve the all life cycle protection for serverless application with limited cost.In this paper,we present ATSSC,a proactive defense enabled attack tolerant serverless platform.ATSSC integrates the characteristic of redundancy,diversity and dynamic into serverless seamless to achieve high-level security and efficiency.Specifically,ATSSC constructs multiple diverse function replicas to process the driven events and performs cross-validation to verify the results.In order to create diverse function replicas,both software diversity and environment diversity are adopted.Furthermore,a dynamic function refresh strategy is proposed to keep the clean state of serverless functions.We implement ATSSC based on Kubernetes and Knative.Analysis and experimental results demonstrate that ATSSC can effectively protect serverless computing against cyberattacks with acceptable costs.

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.

Advances in neuromorphic computing:Expanding horizons for AI development through novel artificial neurons and in-sensor computing

AI development has brought great success to upgrading the information age.At the same time,the large-scale artificial neural network for building AI systems is thirsty for computing power,which is barely satisfied by the conventional computing hardware.In the post-Moore era,the increase in computing power brought about by the size reduction of CMOS in very large-scale integrated circuits(VLSIC)is challenging to meet the growing demand for AI computing power.To address the issue,technical approaches like neuromorphic computing attract great attention because of their feature of breaking Von-Neumann architecture,and dealing with AI algorithms much more parallelly and energy efficiently.Inspired by the human neural network architecture,neuromorphic computing hardware is brought to life based on novel artificial neurons constructed by new materials or devices.Although it is relatively difficult to deploy a training process in the neuromorphic architecture like spiking neural network(SNN),the development in this field has incubated promising technologies like in-sensor computing,which brings new opportunities for multidisciplinary research,including the field of optoelectronic materials and devices,artificial neural networks,and microelectronics integration technology.The vision chips based on the architectures could reduce unnecessary data transfer and realize fast and energy-efficient visual cognitive processing.This paper reviews firstly the architectures and algorithms of SNN,and artificial neuron devices supporting neuromorphic computing,then the recent progress of in-sensor computing vision chips,which all will promote the development of AI.

Complementary memtransistors for neuromorphic computing: How, what and why

Memtransistors in which the source-drain channel conductance can be nonvolatilely manipulated through the gate signals have emerged as promising components for implementing neuromorphic computing.On the other side,it is known that the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS)field effect transistors have played the fundamental role in the modern integrated circuit technology.Therefore,will complementary memtransistors(CMT)also play such a role in the future neuromorphic circuits and chips?In this review,various types of materials and physical mechanisms for constructing CMT(how)are inspected with their merits and need-to-address challenges discussed.Then the unique properties(what)and poten-tial applications of CMT in different learning algorithms/scenarios of spiking neural networks(why)are reviewed,including super-vised rule,reinforcement one,dynamic vision with in-sensor computing,etc.Through exploiting the complementary structure-related novel functions,significant reduction of hardware consuming,enhancement of energy/efficiency ratio and other advan-tages have been gained,illustrating the alluring prospect of design technology co-optimization(DTCO)of CMT towards neuro-morphic computing.

Secure and Efficient Outsourced Computation in Cloud Computing Environments

Secure and efficient outsourced computation in cloud computing environments is crucial for ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and resource optimization. In this research, we propose novel algorithms and methodologies to address these challenges. Through a series of experiments, we evaluate the performance, security, and efficiency of the proposed algorithms in real-world cloud environments. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of homomorphic encryption-based secure computation, secure multiparty computation, and trusted execution environment-based approaches in mitigating security threats while ensuring efficient resource utilization. Specifically, our homomorphic encryption-based algorithm exhibits encryption times ranging from 20 to 1000 milliseconds and decryption times ranging from 25 to 1250 milliseconds for payload sizes varying from 100 KB to 5000 KB. Furthermore, our comparative analysis against state-of-the-art solutions reveals the strengths of our proposed algorithms in terms of security guarantees, encryption overhead, and communication latency.

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.

Hybrid Approach for Cost Efficient Application Placement in Fog-Cloud Computing Environments

Fog computing has recently developed as a new paradigm with the aim of addressing time-sensitive applications better than with cloud computing by placing and processing tasks in close proximity to the data sources.However,the majority of the fog nodes in this environment are geographically scattered with resources that are limited in terms of capabilities compared to cloud nodes,thus making the application placement problem more complex than that in cloud computing.An approach for cost-efficient application placement in fog-cloud computing environments that combines the benefits of both fog and cloud computing to optimize the placement of applications and services while minimizing costs.This approach is particularly relevant in scenarios where latency,resource constraints,and cost considerations are crucial factors for the deployment of applications.In this study,we propose a hybrid approach that combines a genetic algorithm(GA)with the Flamingo Search Algorithm(FSA)to place application modules while minimizing cost.We consider four cost-types for application deployment:Computation,communication,energy consumption,and violations.The proposed hybrid approach is called GA-FSA and is designed to place the application modules considering the deadline of the application and deploy them appropriately to fog or cloud nodes to curtail the overall cost of the system.An extensive simulation is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed approach compared to other state-of-the-art approaches.The results demonstrate that GA-FSA approach is superior to the other approaches with respect to task guarantee ratio(TGR)and total cost.

Guest Editorial:Special issue on trustworthy machine learning for behavioural and social computing

Machine learning has been extensively applied in behavioural and social computing,encompassing a spectrum of applications such as social network analysis,click stream analysis,recommendation of points of interest,and sentiment analysis.The datasets pertinent to these applications are inherently linked to human behaviour and societal dynamics,posing a risk of disclosing personal or sensitive information if mishandled or subjected to attacks.

Exploring reservoir computing:Implementation via double stochastic nanowire networks

Neuromorphic computing,inspired by the human brain,uses memristor devices for complex tasks.Recent studies show that self-organizing random nanowires can implement neuromorphic information processing,enabling data analysis.This paper presents a model based on these nanowire networks,with an improved conductance variation profile.We suggest using these networks for temporal information processing via a reservoir computing scheme and propose an efficient data encoding method using voltage pulses.The nanowire network layer generates dynamic behaviors for pulse voltages,allowing time series prediction analysis.Our experiment uses a double stochastic nanowire network architecture for processing multiple input signals,outperforming traditional reservoir computing in terms of fewer nodes,enriched dynamics and improved prediction accuracy.Experimental results confirm the high accuracy of this architecture on multiple real-time series datasets,making neuromorphic nanowire networks promising for physical implementation of reservoir computing.

A Novel Scheduling Framework for Multi-Programming Quantum Computing in Cloud Environment

As cloud quantum computing gains broader acceptance,a growing quantity of researchers are directing their focus towards this domain.Nevertheless,the rapid surge in demand for cloud-based quantum computing resources has led to a scarcity,which in turn hampers users from achieving optimal satisfaction.Therefore,cloud quantum computing service providers require a unified analysis and scheduling framework for their quantumresources and user jobs to meet the ever-growing usage demands.This paper introduces a new multi-programming scheduling framework for quantum computing in a cloud environment.The framework addresses the issue of limited quantum computing resources in cloud environments and ensures a satisfactory user experience.It introduces three innovative designs:1)Our framework automatically allocates tasks to different quantum backends while ensuring fairness among users by considering both the cloud-based quantum resources and the user-submitted tasks.2)Multi-programming mechanism is employed across different quantum backends to enhance the overall throughput of the quantum cloud.In comparison to conventional task schedulers,our proposed framework achieves a throughput improvement of more than two-fold in the quantum cloud.3)The framework can balance fidelity and user waiting time by adaptively adjusting scheduling parameters.

A Secure and Cost-Effective Training Framework Atop Serverless Computing for Object Detection in Blasting

The data analysis of blasting sites has always been the research goal of relevant researchers.The rise of mobile blasting robots has aroused many researchers’interest in machine learning methods for target detection in the field of blasting.Serverless Computing can provide a variety of computing services for people without hardware foundations and rich software development experience,which has aroused people’s interest in how to use it in the field ofmachine learning.In this paper,we design a distributedmachine learning training application based on the AWS Lambda platform.Based on data parallelism,the data aggregation and training synchronization in Function as a Service(FaaS)are effectively realized.It also encrypts the data set,effectively reducing the risk of data leakage.We rent a cloud server and a Lambda,and then we conduct experiments to evaluate our applications.Our results indicate the effectiveness,rapidity,and economy of distributed training on FaaS.

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.