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We study status updating under inexact knowledge about the battery levels of the energy harvesting sensors in an IoT network, where users make on-demand requests to a cache-enabled edge node to send updates about various random processes monitored by the sensors. To serve the request(s), the edge node either commands the corresponding sensor to send an update or uses the aged data from the cache. We find a control policy that minimizes the average on-demand AoI subject to per-slot energy harvesting constraints under partial battery knowledge at the edge node. Namely, the edge node is informed about sensors' battery levels only via received status updates, leading to uncertainty about the battery levels for the decision-making. We model the problem as a POMDP which is then reformulated as an equivalent belief-MDP. The belief-MDP in its original form is difficult to solve due to the infinite belief space. However, by exploiting a specific pattern in the evolution of beliefs, we truncate the belief space and develop a dynamic programming algorithm to obtain an optimal policy. Moreover, we address a multi-sensor setup under a transmission limitation for which we develop an asymptotically optimal algorithm. Simulation results assess the performance of the proposed methods., Comment: 36 Pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2203.10400, arXiv:2212.05979

We consider an energy harvesting (EH) IoT network, where users make on-demand requests to a cache-enabled edge node to send status updates about various random processes, each monitored by an EH sensor. The edge node serves users' requests by either commanding the corresponding sensor to send a fresh status update or retrieving the most recently received measurement from the cache. We aim to find a control policy at the edge node that minimizes the average on-demand AoI over all sensors subject to per-slot transmission and energy constraints under partial battery knowledge at the edge node. Namely, the limited radio resources (e.g., bandwidth) causes that only a limited number of sensors can send status updates at each time slot (i.e., per-slot transmission constraint) and the scarcity of energy for the EH sensors imposes an energy constraint. Besides, the edge node is informed of the sensors' battery levels only via received status update packets, leading to uncertainty about the battery levels for the decision-making.We develop a low-complexity algorithm -- termed relax-then-truncate -- and prove that it is asymptotically optimal as the number of sensors goes to infinity. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed method achieves significant gains over a request-aware greedy policy and show that it has near-optimal performance even for moderate numbers of sensors., Comment: 7 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2201.12277

We consider status updating under inexact knowledge of the battery level of an energy harvesting (EH) sensor that sends status updates about a random process to users via a cache-enabled edge node. More precisely, the control decisions are performed by relying only on the battery level knowledge captured from the last received status update packet. Upon receiving on-demand requests for fresh information from the users, the edge node uses the available information to decide whether to command the sensor to send a status update or to retrieve the most recently received measurement from the cache. We seek for the best actions of the edge node to minimize the average AoI of the served measurements, i.e., average on-demand AoI. Accounting for the partial battery knowledge, we model the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), and, through characterizing its key structures, develop a dynamic programming algorithm to obtain an optimal policy. Simulation results illustrate the threshold-based structure of an optimal policy and show the gains obtained by the proposed optimal POMDP-based policy compared to a request-aware greedy (myopic) policy., Comment: 12 pages

We consider a resource-constrained IoT network, where multiple users make on-demand requests to a cache-enabled edge node to send status updates about various random processes, each monitored by an energy harvesting sensor. The edge node serves users' requests by deciding whether to command the corresponding sensor to send a fresh status update or retrieve the most recently received measurement from the cache. Our objective is to find the best actions of the edge node to minimize the average age of information (AoI) of the received measurements upon request, i.e., average on-demand AoI, subject to per-slot transmission and energy constraints. First, we derive a Markov decision process model and propose an iterative algorithm that obtains an optimal policy. Then, we develop an asymptotically optimal low-complexity algorithm -- termed relax-then-truncate -- and prove that it is optimal as the number of sensors goes to infinity. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed relax-then-truncate approach significantly reduces the average on-demand AoI compared to a request-aware greedy (myopic) policy and also depict that it performs close to the optimal solution even for moderate numbers of sensors., Comment: 31 Pages

Information freshness is crucial for time-critical IoT applications, e.g., monitoring and control systems. We consider an IoT status update system with multiple users, multiple energy harvesting sensors, and a wireless edge node. The users receive time-sensitive information about physical quantities, each measured by a sensor. Users send requests to the edge node where a cache contains the most recently received measurements from each sensor. To serve a request, the edge node either commands the sensor to send a status update or retrieves the aged measurement from the cache. We aim at finding the best actions of the edge node to minimize the age of information of the served measurements. We model this problem as a Markov decision process and develop reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms: model-based value iteration and model-free Q-learning methods. We also propose a Q-learning method for the realistic case where the edge node is informed about the sensors' battery levels only via the status updates. The case under transmission limitations is also addressed. Furthermore, properties of an optimal policy are analytically characterized. Simulation results show that an optimal policy is a threshold-based policy and that the proposed RL methods significantly reduce the average cost compared to several baselines., Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures

We consider an IoT sensing network with multiple users, multiple energy harvesting sensors, and a wireless edge node acting as a gateway between the users and sensors. The users request for updates about the value of physical processes, each of which is measured by one sensor. The edge node has a cache storage that stores the most recently received measurements from each sensor. Upon receiving a request, the edge node can either command the corresponding sensor to send a status update, or use the data in the cache. We aim to find the best action of the edge node to minimize the average long-term cost which trade-offs between the age of information and energy consumption. We propose a practical reinforcement learning approach that finds an optimal policy without knowing the exact battery levels of the sensors., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures