Resource optimization for minimizing latency and cost in UAV-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) networks

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enable a mobile edge computing (MEC) paradigm with reduced latency by bringing computational resources closer to the network edge. However, UAV-MEC servers have less computation and caching resources than ground base stations (BSs). The management of communication and control resources is crucial to coordinate communication, computing, and caching due to the involvement of aerial networks. Thus, managing joint caching, communication, computing, and control (4C) resources is vital in UAV-assisted MEC networks. To address these challenges, we developed a computational model for efficient resource management to reduce the linear combination of network cost and latency under constrained caching, computing, and offloading. We used binary decision variables for the allocation of computational and offloading resources. The formulated problem is a binary linear programming problem incorporating binary decision variables and linear constraints. We propose an interior point method-based heuristic to obtain a sub-optimal solution with low complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach compared to the branch and bound algorithm.