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With the high flexibility of supporting resource-intensive and time-sensitive applications, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) is proposed as an innovational paradigm to support the mobile users (MUs). As a promising technology, digital twin (DT) is capable of timely mapping the physical entities to virtual models, and reflecting the MEC network state in real-time. In this paper, we first propose an MEC network with multiple movable UAVs and one DT-empowered ground base station to enhance the MEC service for MUs. Considering the limited energy resource of both MUs and UAVs, we formulate an online problem of resource scheduling to minimize the weighted energy consumption of them. To tackle the difficulty of the combinational problem, we formulate it as a Markov decision process (MDP) with multiple types of agents. Since the proposed MDP has huge state space and action space, we propose a deep reinforcement learning approach based on multi-agent proximal policy optimization (MAPPO) with Beta distribution and attention mechanism to pursue the optimal computation offloading policy. Numerical results show that our proposed scheme is able to efficiently reduce the energy consumption and outperforms the benchmarks in performance, convergence speed and utilization of resources., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures

The rapid development of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) requires industrial production towards digitalization to improve network efficiency. Digital Twin is a promising technology to empower the digital transformation of IIoT by creating virtual models of physical objects. However, the provision of network efficiency in IIoT is very challenging due to resource-constrained devices, stochastic tasks, and resources heterogeneity. Distributed resources in IIoT networks can be efficiently exploited through computation offloading to reduce energy consumption while enhancing data processing efficiency. In this article, we first propose a new paradigm digital twin network to build network topology and the stochastic task arrival model in IIoT systems. Then, we formulate the stochastic computation offloading and resource allocation problem to minimize the long-term energy efficiency. As the formulated problem is a stochastic programming problem, we leverage Lyapunov optimization technique to transform the original problem into a deterministic per-time slot problem. Finally, we present asynchronous actor-critic algorithm to find the optimal stochastic computation offloading policy. Illustrative results demonstrate that our proposed scheme is able to significantly outperforms the benchmarks.

The rapid increase in the volume of data generated from connected devices in industrial Internet of Things paradigm, opens up new possibilities for enhancing the quality of service for the emerging applications through data sharing. However, security and privacy concerns (e.g., data leakage) are major obstacles for data providers to share their data in wireless networks. The leakage of private data can lead to serious issues beyond financial loss for the providers. In this article, we first design a blockchain empowered secure data sharing architecture for distributed multiple parties. Then, we formulate the data sharing problem into a machine-learning problem by incorporating privacy-preserved federated learning. The privacy of data is well-maintained by sharing the data model instead of revealing the actual data. Finally, we integrate federated learning in the consensus process of permissioned blockchain, so that the computing work for consensus can also be used for federated training. Numerical results derived from real-world datasets show that the proposed data sharing scheme achieves good accuracy, high efficiency, and enhanced security.

Recent developments in technologies such as MEC and AI contribute significantly in accelerating the deployment of VCPS. Techniques such as dynamic content caching, efficient resource allocation, and data sharing play a crucial role in enhancing the service quality and user driving experience. Meanwhile, data leakage in VCPS can lead to physical consequences such as endangering passenger safety and privacy, and causing severe property loss for data providers. The increasing volume of data, the dynamic network topology, and the availability of limited resources make data leakage in VCPS an even more challenging problem, especially when it involves multiple users and multiple transmission channels. In this article, we first propose a secure and intelligent architecture for enhancing data privacy. Then we present our new privacy-preserving federated learning mechanism and design a two-phase mitigating scheme consisting of intelligent data transformation and collaborative data leakage detection. Numerical results based on a real-world dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme and show that our scheme achieves good accuracy, efficiency, and high security.

Driven by technologies such as mobile edge computing and 5G, recent years have witnessed the rapid development of urban informatics, where a large amount of data is generated. To cope with the growing data, artificial intelligence algorithms have been widely exploited. Federated learning is a promising paradigm for distributed edge computing, which enables edge nodes to train models locally without transmitting their data to a server. However, the security and privacy concerns of federated learning hinder its wide deployment in urban applications such as vehicular networks. In this article, we propose a differentially private asynchronous federated learning scheme for resource sharing in vehicular networks. To build a secure and robust federated learning scheme, we incorporate local differential privacy into federated learning for protecting the privacy of updated local models. We further propose a random distributed update scheme to get rid of the security threats led by a centralized curator. Moreover, we perform the convergence boosting in our proposed scheme by updates verification and weighted aggregation. We evaluate our scheme on three real-world datasets. Numerical results show the high accuracy and efficiency of our proposed scheme, whereas preserve the data privacy.

Studying networked systems in a variety of domains, including biology, social science, and Internet of Things, has recently received a surge of attention. For a networked system, there are usually multiple types of interactions between its components, and such interaction-type information is crucial since it always associated with important features. However, some interaction types that actually exist in the network may not be observed in the metadata collected in practice. This article proposes an approach aiming to detect previously undiscovered interaction types (PUITs) in networked systems. The first step in our proposed PUIT detection approach is to answer the following fundamental question: is it possible to effectively detect PUITs without utilizing metadata other than the existing incomplete interaction-type information and the connection information of the system? Here, we first propose a temporal network model which can be used to mimic any real network and then discover that some special networks which fit the model shall a common topological property. Supported by this discovery, we finally develop a PUIT detection method for networks which fit the proposed model. Both analytical and numerical results show this detection method is more effective than the baseline method, demonstrating that effectively detecting PUITs in networks is achievable. More studies on PUIT detection are of significance and in great need since this approach should be as essential as the previously undiscovered node-type detection which has gained great success in the field of biology.

Recent advances in edge computing and caching have significant impacts on the developments of vehicular networks. Nevertheless, the heterogeneous requirements of on-vehicle applications and the time variability on popularity of contents bring great challenges for edge servers to efficiently utilize their resources. Moreover, the high mobility of smart vehicles adds substantial complexity in jointly optimizing edge computing and caching. Artificial intelligence (AI) can greatly enhance the cognition and intelligence of vehicular networks and thus assist in optimally allocating resources for problems with diverse, time-variant, and complex features. In this article, we propose a new architecture that can dynamically orchestrate edge computing and caching resources to improve system utility by making full use of AI-based algorithms. Then we formulate a joint edge computing and caching scheme to maximize system utility and develop a novel resource management scheme by exploiting deep reinforcement learning. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

The emergence of computation intensive and delay sensitive on-vehicle applications makes it quite a challenge for vehicles to be able to provide the required level of computation capacity, and thus the performance. Vehicular edge computing (VEC) is a new computing paradigm with a great potential to enhance vehicular performance by offloading applications from the resource-constrained vehicles to lightweight and ubiquitous VEC servers. Nevertheless, offloading schemes, where all vehicles offload their tasks to the same VEC server, can limit the performance gain due to overload. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose integrating load balancing with offloading, and study resource allocation for a multiuser multiserver VEC system. First, we formulate the joint load balancing and offloading problem as a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem to maximize system utility. Particularly, we take IEEE 802.11p protocol into consideration for modeling the system utility. Then, we decouple the problem as two subproblems and develop a low-complexity algorithm to jointly make VEC server selection, and optimize offloading ratio and computation resource. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed algorithm exhibits fast convergence and demonstrates the superior performance of our joint optimal VEC server selection and offloading algorithm compared to the benchmark solutions.

Blockchain and AI are promising techniques for next-generation wireless networks. Blockchain can establish a secure and decentralized resource sharing environment. AI can be explored to solve problems with uncertain, time-variant, and complex features. Both of these techniques have recently seen a surge in interest. The integration of these two techniques can further enhance the performance of wireless networks. In this article, we first propose a secure and intelligent architecture for next-generation wireless networks by integrating AI and blockchain into wireless networks to enable flexible and secure resource sharing. Then we propose a blockchain empowered content caching problem to maximize system utility, and develop a new caching scheme by utilizing deep reinforcement learning. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Computation intensive and delay-sensitive applications impose severe requirements on mobile devices of providing required computation capacity and ensuring latency. Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a promising technology that can alleviate computation limitation of mobile users and prolong their lifetime through computation offloading. However, computation offloading in an MEC environment faces severe issues due to dense deployment of MEC servers. Moreover, a mobile user has multiple mutually dependent tasks, which make offloading policy design even more challenging. To address the above-mentioned problems in this paper, we first propose a novel two-tier computation offloading framework in heterogeneous networks. Then, we formulate joint computation offloading and user association problem for multi-task mobile edge computing system to minimize overall energy consumption. To solve the optimization problem, we develop an efficient computation offloading algorithm by jointly optimizing user association and computation offloading where computation resource allocation and transmission power allocation are also considered. Numerical results illustrate fast convergence of the proposed algorithm, and demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed algorithm compared to state of the art solutions.

Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) is a promising paradigm to enable huge amount of data and multimedia content to be cached in proximity to vehicles. However, high mobility of vehicles and dynamic wireless channel condition make it challenge to design an optimal content caching policy. Further, with much sensitive personal information, vehicles may be not willing to caching their contents to an untrusted caching provider. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is an emerging technique to solve the problem with high-dimensional and time-varying features. Permission blockchain is able to establish a secure and decentralized peer-to-peer transaction environment. In this paper, we integrate DRL and permissioned blockchain into vehicular networks for intelligent and secure content caching. We first propose a blockchain empowered distributed content caching framework where vehicles perform content caching and base stations maintain the permissioned blockchain. Then, we exploit the advanced DRL approach to design an optimal content caching scheme with taking mobility into account. Finally, we propose a new block verifier selection method, Proof-of-Utility (PoU), to accelerate block verification process. Security analysis shows that our proposed blockchain empowered content caching can achieve security and privacy protection. Numerical results based on a real dataset from Uber indicate that the DRL-inspired content caching scheme significantly outperforms two benchmark policies.

5G beyond is an end-edge-cloud orchestrated network that can exploit heterogeneous capabilities of the end devices, edge servers, and the cloud and thus has the potential to enable computation-intensive and delay-sensitive applications via computation offloading. However, in multi user wireless networks, diverse application requirements and the possibility of various radio access modes for communication among devices make it challenging to design an optimal computation offloading scheme. In addition, having access to complete network information that includes variables such as wireless channel state, and available bandwidth and computation resources, is a major issue. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is an emerging technique to address such an issue with limited and less accurate network information. In this paper, we utilize DRL to design an optimal computation offloading and resource allocation strategy for minimizing system energy consumption. We first present a multi-user end-edge-cloud orchestrated network where all devices and base stations have computation capabilities. Then, we formulate the joint computation offloading and resource allocation problem as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and propose a new DRL algorithm to minimize system energy consumption. Numerical results based on a real-world dataset demonstrate that the proposed DRL-based algorithm significantly outperforms the benchmark policies in terms of system energy consumption. Extensive simulations show that learning rate, discount factor, and number of devices have considerable influence on the performance of the proposed algorithm.

With the explosive growth of data transmission requirements, the massive bursty traffic results in more frequent and serious network congestion. To deal with the burst traffic, the buffer size of the network is designed to be much larger than required. However, increasing buffer size leads to bufferbloat problem, which exacerbates network congestion. To address this problem, Active Queue Management (AQM) is proposed to cooperate with Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) congestion control mechanism. But it is hard to model dynamic AQM/TCP system and tune the parameters of conventional AQM schemes to obtain good performance under different congestion scenarios. In this paper, we aim to study the AQM scheme from a whole new perspective by leveraging emerging Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). A model-free approach, DRL-AQM, enables the AQM to learn the best dropping policy as human beings learn skills. DRL-AQM can capture intricate patterns in the data traffic model after trained in a simple network scenario, and leverage this to improve performance in a great variety of scenarios. There are two phases in our scheme, offline training phase and deployment phase. Once the model is trained, it can work well without any parameter-tuning in many scenarios. Experimental results show that (1) DRL-AQM outperforms conventional AQM algorithms in a variety of complex network scenarios and it is robust and insensitive to network conditions. (2) DRL-AQM keeps persistently low buffer capacity utilization without over dropping and damaging throughput. (3) DRL-AQM adapts automatically and continuously to the dynamics of the network links.

Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) is a promising paradigm to enable huge amount of multimedia content to be cached in proximity to vehicles. Since vehicles are equipped with a certain amount of caching resource, they can be regarded as edge nodes to expand the caching capacity of the network edge. However, with much sensitive personal information, vehicles may be not willing to cache their content to an untrusted vehicle. Permission blockchain has the potential to address such an issue. In this paper, we utilize permissioned blockchain to design a secure content caching scheme between vehicles. Since high mobility of vehicles makes a dynamic caching environment, we exploit deep reinforcement learning approach to design the content caching scheme. Moreover, we propose a new block verifier selection metric, Proof-of-Utility (PoU), to enable a lightweight permissioned blockchain. Security analysis shows that our proposed blockchain empowered content caching can achieve security and privacy protection. Numerical results based on the Uber dataset indicate the DRL-inspired content caching scheme significantly outperforms two benchmark policies.

By extending computation capacity to the edge of wireless networks, edge computing has the potential to enable computation-intensive and delay-sensitive applications in 5G and beyond via computation offloading. However, in multi-user heterogeneous networks, it is challenging to capture complete network information, such as wireless channel state, available bandwidth or computation resources. The strong couplings among devices on application requirements or radio access mode make it more difficult to design an optimal computation offloading scheme. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is an emerging technique to address such an issue with limited and less accurate network information. In this paper, we utilize DRL to design an optimal computation offloading and resource allocation strategy for minimizing system energy consumption. We first present a multi-user edge computing framework in heterogeneous networks. Then, we formulate the joint computation offloading and resource allocation problem as a DRL form and propose a new DRL-inspired algorithm to minimize system energy consumption. Numerical results based on a realworld dataset demonstrate demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm, compared to two benchmark solutions.

To enable the emerging vehicular applications and multimedia services in an Internet of Vehicles (IoV) framework, edge caching is a promising paradigm which can cache content in proximity to vehicles, and thus alleviate heavy load on backhaul links and contribute in reducing transmission latency. However, in a multi-access vehicular network, complex content delivery and high mobility of vehicles introduce new challenges to support edge caching in a dynamic environment. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is an emerging technique to solve the issue with time-varying feature. In this paper, we utilize DRL to design an optimal vehicular edge caching and content delivery strategy for minimizing content delivery latency. We first propose a multiaccess edge caching and content delivery framework in vehicular networks. Then, we formulate the vehicular edge caching and content delivery problem and propose a novel DRL algorithm to solve it. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed DRL-based algorithm, compared to two benchmark solutions.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) communications have received increasing attention in both military and civilian applications due to low cost and ease of deployment. Security is an unavoidable yet challenging issue during the data transmission process of communication networks. In this paper, we concentrate on the resource allocation in secure relay network assisted by a UAV in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. Our target is to maximize the secrecy rate by jointly designing the transmit beamformer and artificial noise subject to the transmit power constraint of UAV. The resulting optimization problem is highly intractable and the key observation is that the original optimization problem can be equivalently transformed into a two- level problem. In particular, the inner-level problem can be solved by exploiting Semi-Definite Relaxation (SDR) and Charnes-Cooper transformation techniques, and the outer-level problem is handled by performing one-dimensional algorithm. Also, the tightness of the rank-relaxation is analyzed. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the performance of our proposed scheme.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is envisioned as a promising solution to real-time services in Internet of Vehicles (IoV) by enabling edge caching, computing and communication. However, it is still challenging to implement multimedia streaming in MEC-based IoV due to dynamic vehicular environments and heterogeneous network resources. In this paper, we present an MEC-based architecture for adaptive-bitrate-based (ABR) multimedia streaming in IoV, where each multimedia file is segmented into multiple chunks encoded with different bitrate levels. Then, we formulate a joint resource optimization (JRO) problem by synthesizing heterogeneous edge cache and communication resource constraints, which aims at achieving both smooth play and high-quality service by optimizing chunk placement and transmission. For chunk placement, a multi-armed bandit (MAB) algorithm is proposed for online scheduling with low overhead but slow convergence. Further, a deep-Q-learning algorithm is proposed to improve cache reward and speed up convergence by using replay memory for repeatedly training. For chunk transmission, we design an adaptive-quality-based chunk selection (AQCS) algorithm, which determines bandwidth allocation and quality level based on a benefit function incorporating quality level, available playback time, and freezing delay. Lastly, we build the simulation model and give comprehensive performance evaluation, which demonstrates the superiority of proposed algorithms.

In the frame of compressed sensing distributed video coding, the design of the quantization matrix directly affects the reconstruction quality of the receiving terminal of the video. In this article, we present a new design method of the Gaussian quantization matrix adapting to the compressed sensing coding, for that the distribution of the parameters of the image is featured of the characteristic of approximately normal distribution after measured by compressive sensing. By this way, the parameters of a certain quantity of the image frames depending on the video sequences generated by the Gaussian quantization matrix possess certain adaptive capacity. By comparison with the plan of the traditional quantization, the quantization matrix presented in this article would improve the reconstruction quality of the video.

The emergence of computation intensive on-vehicle applications poses a significant challenge to provide the required computation capacity and maintain high performance. Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) is a new computing paradigm with a high potential to improve vehicular services by offloading computation-intensive tasks to the VEC servers. Nevertheless, as the computation resource of each VEC server is limited, offloading may not be efficient if all vehicles select the same VEC server to offload their tasks. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose offloading with resource allocation. We incorporate the communication and computation to derive the task processing delay. We formulate the problem as a system utility maximization problem, and then develop a low-complexity algorithm to jointly optimize offloading decision and resource allocation. Numerical results demonstrate the superior performance of our Joint Optimization of Selection and Computation (JOSC) algorithm compared to state of the art solutions.