QUBO Formulation for Task Offloading in Mobile Cloud Computing

The execution of delay-sensitive mobile applications on an end-user mobile device is challenging due to its resource limitations. To improve application execution time, one can offload its compute-intensive tasks from the device to cloud servers. Still, communication delay between hosts (device and servers) can increase execution time. This calls for finding an optimal allocation of tasks across hosts that minimizes execution time. Finding an optimal task allocation is an NP-hard optimization problem. In this work, we formulate a novel QUBO for task offloading. We then demonstrate its use by applying QAOA on an example workflow, and our best allocation obtained matches that of the exhaustive approach. Here, we aim to provide insight as to how task offloading can be approached using quantum methodology.