DRL-Based Contract Incentive for Wireless-Powered and UAV-Assisted Backscattering MEC System

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is viewed as a promising technology to address the challenges of intensive computing demands in hotspots (HSs). In this article, we consider a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted backscattering MEC system. The UAVs can fly from parking aprons to HSs, providing energy to HSs via RF beamforming and collecting data from wireless users in HSs through backscattering. We aim to maximize the long-term utility of all HSs, subject to the stability of the HSs’ energy queues. This problem is a joint optimization of the data offloading decision and contract design that should be adaptive to the users’ random task demands and the time-varying wireless channel conditions. A deep reinforcement learning based contract incentive (DRLCI) strategy is proposed to solve this problem in two steps. First, we use deep Q-network (DQN) algorithm to update the HSs’ offloading decisions according to the changing network environment. Second, to motivate the UAVs to participate in resource sharing, a contract specific to each type of UAVs has been designed, utilizing Lagrangian multiplier method to approach the optimal contract. Simulation results show the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed strategy, demonstrating a better performance than the natural DQN and Double-DQN algorithms.