Joint computation offloading and resource allocation in clustered MEC-enabled ultra-dense networks with multi-slope channels

To ensure gains from the ultra-dense networks (UDNs) with multi-slope channels, we cluster small base stations (SBSs) with intra-cluster orthogonal bands and inter-cluster shared bands, and establish some new stipulations tailored for UDN deployment. Under such proposed interference management strategies and proportional remote computation allocation, we jointly optimize computation offloading and power control to minimize local energy consumption. The problem is decomposed into: (1) an offloading subproblem solved via an improved coalitional game-based algorithm, and (2) a power control subproblem transformed into single-variable polynomial optimization, solved via a two-tier iterative algorithm using Newton-like and fixed-point iteration approaches. Simulations demonstrate that the designed algorithm, integrating proposed interference management strategies and proportional remote computation allocation, outperforms existing methods in minimizing local energy consumption under strict latency requirements.