A2PC: Augmented Advantage Pointer-Critic Model for Low Latency on Mobile IoT With Edge Computing

Abstract

As a growing trend, edge computing infrastructures are starting to be integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) systems to facilitate time-critical applications. These systems often require the processing of data with limited usefulness in time, so the edge becomes vital in the development of such reactive IoT applications with real-time requirements. Although different architectural designs will always have advantages and disadvantages, mobile gateways appear to be particularly relevant in enabling this integration with the edge, particularly in the context of wide area networks with occasional data generation. In these scenarios, mobility planning is necessary, as aspects of the technology need to be aligned with the temporal needs of an application. The nature of this planning problem makes cutting-edge deep reinforcement learning (DRL) techniques useful in solving pertinent issues, such as having to deal with multiple dimensions in the action space while aiming for optimum levels of system performance. This article presents a novel scalable DRL model that incorporates a pointer-network (Ptr-Net) and an actor-critic algorithm to handle complex action spaces. The model synchronously determines the gateway location and visit time. Ultimately, the gateways are able to attain high-quality trajectory planning with reduced latency.