Low-latency computational-task execution can be achieved by leveraging device-to-device offloading and parallel processing over nearby extreme edge devices (EEDs), a paradigm known as extreme edge computing (EEC). However, EEC performance is challenged by device spatial randomness with intermittent wireless connectivity, limited device computing power, time-varying availability, and device failures. This paper introduces a novel spatiotemporal analytical framework for EEC by integrating stochastic geometry with an absorbing continuous-time Markov chain (ACTMC) to capture the interplay between communication and computation. Modeling a large-scale millimeter-wave network, we derive tractable expressions for the average task response delay and the task completion probability under both random and location-aware EED selection. Numerical results quantify the impact of location-awareness and unveil the existence of an optimal task segmentation that minimizes delay, which depends on network parameters and EED capabilities. We also demonstrate that device failures and EED scarcity exacerbate delay, which can be mitigated through a collaborative load-balancing approach between EEC and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) schemes. Simulations and sensitivity analyses validate the proposed framework and offer design insights for optimizing system performance.

Extreme Edge Computing (EEC) pushes computing even closer to end users than traditional Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), harnessing the idle resources of Extreme Edge Devices (EEDs) to enable low-latency, distributed processing. However, EEC faces key challenges, including spatial randomness in device distribution, limited EED computational power necessitating parallel task execution, vulnerability to failure, and temporal randomness due to variability in wireless communication and execution times. These challenges highlight the need for a rigorous analytical framework to evaluate EEC performance. We present the first spatiotemporal mathematical model for EEC over large-scale millimeter-wave networks. Utilizing stochastic geometry and an Absorbing Continuous-Time Markov Chain (ACTMC), the framework captures the complex interaction between communication and computation performance, including their temporal overlap during parallel execution. We evaluate two key metrics: average task response delay and task completion probability. Together, they provide a holistic view of latency and reliability. The analysis considers fundamental offloading strategies, including randomized and location-aware schemes, while accounting for EED failures. Results show that there exists an optimal task segmentation that minimizes delay. Under limited EED availability, we investigate a bias-based EEC and MEC collaboration that offloads excess demand to MEC resources, effectively reducing congestion and improving system responsiveness.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a promising paradigm for Internet of Things applications requiring synchronized user experiences. However, sustaining scalable and reliable MEC services is challenging when computational resources are overloaded, especially as MEC service providers (SPs) must minimize operational costs to maximize profits while offering competitively priced services. This article proposes the cooperative multiprovider market (CMPM) scheme, the first to cooperatively enhance service scalability and reliability while addressing the profit-pricing dilemma in a multiprovider market. CMPM enables overloaded home SPs (HSPs) to leverage underutilized computational resources from reliable foreign SPs (FSPs) via reputation-based service replication, meeting the stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for real-time applications involving user groups. CMPM resolves the pricing dilemma by applying a game-theoretic approach, allowing FSPs to dynamically optimize revenue and adjust prices when HSPs cannot meet user demand. We formulate the resource allocation and pricing problem as a Stackelberg game, establish the existence of the equilibrium, and develop a distributed algorithm to reach it. Extensive evaluations show that CMPM significantly reduces unit prices, attracts more HSPs, and better manages high-density user loads compared to state-of-the-art schemes that overlook SP reputation and social welfare. CMPM also achieves up to 84% higher FSP revenue, a 67% improvement in scalability, and a 70% higher task success rate compared to baseline schemes.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) has emanated as a propitious computing paradigm that can foster delay-sensitive and/or data-intensive applications. However, it can be challenging to maintain a scalable MEC service when computational resources are overloaded. In this article, we propose the service replication between multiple service providers (SRMSPs) scheme. SRMSP is the first scheme that fosters service scalability in a cost-efficient manner, while considering the stringent QoS requirements of real-time applications involving groups of users. SRMSP enables SRMSPs to minimize the average response delay and the operational cost incurred by service providers, while satisfying the delay requirements of all user groups. We formulate the resource allocation problem as an integer linear program (ILP) and derive an analytical solution using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions and Lagrangian analysis. In addition, we propose the SRMSP-distributed allocation (SRMSP-DA) scheme to provide a time-efficient solution in distributed scenarios. In SRMSP-DA, we use a game-theoretic strategy that formulates the resource allocation problem as a potential game. Extensive simulations show that SRMSP renders a 50% operational cost reduction compared to a baseline scheme that does not consider the operational cost. In addition, SRMSP-DA exhibits a relatively marginal difference of up to 20% and 4% in terms of the total operational cost and average response delay, respectively, compared to the optimal solution provided by SRMSP.

The number of individuals and groups of users offloading independent and inter-related computational tasks to mobile edge computing (MEC) servers is rapidly increasing, thus overloading them and raising the risk of service interruptions. Hence, reactive service replication has been suggested to enable individuals and groups of users to access services from remote edge servers, thus guaranteeing system scalability. This paper proposes a task offloading and service replication scheme on local and remote MEC servers. The scheme minimizes the response time of all users while satisfying the delay requirements of user groups in traffic-heavy and multimedia-intense applications (e.g., online gaming, multimedia conferencing, augmenting reality). We formulate an integer linear problem that minimizes the average response time of all users while satisfying the time and time difference constraints of the user groups running the same applications. We then use linear relaxation programming using Lagrangian analysis and solve the problem using a numerical solver. In addition, we compare the optimal solution to distance-based and resource-based greedy approaches. The results demonstrate the merits of our proposed optimized decision scheme compared to these two greedy approaches.

This paper introduces the new paradigm of Mobile Edge Learning "MEL" that enables the implementation of realistic distributed machine learning (DML) tasks on wireless edge nodes while taking into consideration the heterogeneous computing and networking environments. Therefore, a heterogeneity aware (HA) scheme is designed to solve the problem of dynamic task allocation for MEL in a way that maximizes the DML accuracy over wireless heterogeneous nodes or 'learners' while respecting the time constraints. The problem is first formulated as a quadratically-constrained integer linear program (QCILP). Being NP-hard, it is relaxed into a non-convex problem over real variables which can be solved using commercially available numerical solvers. The relaxation also allows us to propose a solution based on deriving the analytical upper bounds of the optimal solution using Lagrangian analysis and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. The merits of the proposed analytical solution are demonstrated by comparing its performance to the numerical approaches and comparing the validation accuracy of the proposed HA scheme to the baseline heterogeneity unaware (HU) equal task allocation approach. Simulation results show that the HA schemes decrease convergence time up-to 56% and increase the final validation accuracy up-to 8%.

Cooperative perception improves awareness for various traffic situations by connecting autonomous vehicles to each other as well as to the surrounding environment. Overcoming the line-of-sight challenge due to the limitations of vehicle's local sensors is of great importance. However, inefficient solutions can quickly lead to depletion of the limited communication resources. This is critical, especially that the dominant CV2X (Cellular Vehicle to Everything) technology witnesses unprecedented growth in the number and density of connected smart devices. To this end, this paper provides a new centralized cooperative perception approach using CV2X. The system uses vehicle trajectories to prioritize messages communicated messages. Through the basestation (BS), the system prioritizes message requests while being constrained by the available network resources. This system is then implemented and evaluated using 1000 different traffic scenarios. These scenarios are generated using both SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) traffic simulator and a new implemented camera simulator used to represent the vehicle's sensors’ abilities to perceive the surrounding environment. Results show that the system, on average, can execute at least 95% of the total message values using only 100 physical resource blocks for CV2X regardless of the autonomous vehicle densities. This is very robust especially for congested networks as the number of messages requests executed varies between 65% to 95% given the different autonomous vehicle densities. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to use vehicle trajectories to jointly select messages for transmission and allocate RBs (Resource Blocks).

This paper extends the paradigm of "mobile edge learning (MEL)" by designing an energy-aware optimal task allocation scheme for training a machine learning (ML) model in a semi-asynchronous manner across multiple learners connected via the resource-constrained wireless edge network. The tasks are allocated such that the local dataset size selected at each learner ensures completion within a given global delay constraint and a local maximum energy consumption limit. Hence, the designed method is heterogeneity aware (HA) because it offers a trade-off between resource consumption and MEL performance by directly relating the time and energy consumption to the heterogeneous communication/computational capabilities of learners. Because the resulting optimization is an NP-hard quadratically-constrained integer linear program (QCILP), a two-step suggest-and-improve (SAI) solution is proposed. The proposed HA semi-asynchronous (HA-Asyn) approach is compared against the HA synchronous (HA-Sync) scheme and the heterogeneity unaware (HU) synchronous/asynchronous (HU-Sync/Asyn) equal batch allocation schemes. Results from a system of 20 learners tested for various completion time and energy consumption constraints show that the proposed HA-Asyn method works better than the HU-Sync/Asyn approaches and can even provide gains of up-to 25% compared to the HA-Sync scheme.

The advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), which streams a wide range of computation-intensive applications with strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, has caused a paradigm shift from cloud computing to edge computing. Edge computing can drastically reduce latency and improve QoS. However, various dynamic changes can affect service continuity, thus requiring service migration. The dynamic computation load is one of the changes that are typically overlooked in service migration. In this paper, we propose the Dynamic Load-based Proactive Migration (DLPM) scheme. DLPM adopts a finite-state machine (FSM) that models the dynamic computation load, and proactively migrates computation tasks based on the associated transition probabilities. We formulate the service migration problem as an integer linear programming (ILP) optimization problem that aims to minimize the delay. We provide an analytical solution to the optimization problem using the KKT conditions and Lagrangian analysis. Performance evaluation shows that DLPM yields significant improvements in terms of delay and number of migrations compared to the reactive migration approach.

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) is a revolutionary computing paradigm that facilitates delay-sensitive and/or data-intensive applications associated with the Internet of Things (IoT). Harvesting copious yet underutilized computational resources of the Extreme Edge Devices (EEDs) is foreseen as a promising endeavor. Such EEDs offer a unique opportunity to bring the computing service closer to IoT devices to curtail delay. However, the efficacy of extreme-edge parallel computing paradigm is profoundly impacted by i) wireless device-to-device communication performance, that is required for task offloading; and ii) computing capabilities of the EEDs, that governs the execution time of each task. In this context, we propose a novel spatiotemporal framework that employs stochastic geometry and continuous time Markov chains to jointly analyze the interwoven communication and computation performance of extreme edge computing systems. Based on the incorporated framework, we study the influence of various system parameters on the task response delay. Our findings reveal the existence of an optimal number of EEDs that need to be recruited in order to minimize the task response delay. Moreover, we show that in some cases, our model can outperform the normal MEC offloading systems.

One of the most promising techniques for network-wide interference management necessitates a redesign of the network architecture known as cloud radio access network (CRAN). The cloud is responsible for coordinating multiple Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) and scheduling users to their radio resources blocks (RRBs). The transmit frame of each RRH consists of several orthogonal RRBs each maintained at a certain power level (PL). While previous works considered a vanilla version in which each RRB can serve a single user, this paper proposes mixing the flows of multiple users using instantly decodable network coding (IDNC). As such, the total throughput is maximized. The joint user scheduling and power adaptation problem is solved by designing, for each RRB, a subgraph in which each vertex represents potential user-RRH associations, encoded files, transmission rates, and PLs for one specific RRB. It is shown that the original problem is equivalent to a maximum-weight clique problem over the union of all subgraphs, called herein the CRAN-IDNCgraph. Extensive simulation results are provided to attest the effectiveness of the proposed solution against state of the art algorithms. In particular, the presented simulation results reveal that the method achieves substantial performance gains for all system configurations which collaborates the theoretical findings.

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), also known as Mobile Edge Computing, has gained significant momentum as a key facilitator of the stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements associated with delay-sensitive and data-intensive applications. Recently, the advantageous nature of MEC has been further enriched by leveraging the latent yet underused computational resources of Extreme Edge Devices (EEDs), such as smartphones, tablets, and autonomous vehicles. However, EEDs are typically user-owned devices, and thus have dynamic resource usage behavior since users dynamically navigate through various applications on their devices. This, along with the heterogeneity of EEDs, makes it harder to accurately estimate their computational capabilities, drastically affecting task allocation and resource utilization, thus increasing the delay. In this paper, we propose the Usage-based WOrker Resource Characterization (U-WORC) scheme to alleviate this problem and address the issues related to device heterogeneity, resource contention, and network communication delay. U-WORC presents a prediction-based approach to characterize the resources of EEDs (i.e., workers) by clustering the resource usage information and the corresponding execution time while running a benchmark task. Performance evaluation shows that U-WORC yields significant improvements that reach 91.42 % and 38.8 % in terms of characterization accuracy and task execution time, respectively, compared to a prominent scheme that does not consider resource contention and network communication delay.

Edge Computing (EC) is a promising computing paradigm that can foster a wide spectrum of delay-sensitive and/or data-intensive applications. As opposed to cloud computing, which relies on remote cloud servers, EC brings the computing service closer to the end-users, which can significantly reduce the delay. The concept of EC has recently expanded to include harvesting the computation resources of the Extreme Edge Devices (EEDs), such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles, tablets, etc. However, the cost of recruiting EEDs for resource allocation in such EC environments is mostly overlooked. In this paper, we propose the Price-based Compute Clusters Recruitment (PCCR) scheme. In PCCR, we minimize the cost of recruiting the EEDs required to perform a given set of tasks, where each task is satisfied by the collaborative effort of a group of EEDs forming a compute cluster. PCCR strives to minimize the total recruitment cost while keeping the delay below a certain threshold by forming the optimal set of compute clusters from a pool of heterogeneous EEDs available in a given geographical area. We formulate the optimization problem as a Mixed Integer Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program (MIQCQP). We then derive an analytical solution using the KKT conditions and Lagrangian analysis. Extensive simulations show that PCCR significantly outperforms a prominent baseline approach in terms of recruitment cost.

Cooperative driving is a promising technology in the future Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) because of its benefits to safety and fuel efficiency. However, since CAV will be relying heavily on wireless communication to cooperatively coordinate road maneuvering, latency and reliability of communication still pose a challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme based on deep learning prediction to enhance the uplink resource allocation process in 5G C-V2X. The proposed scheme enables the base station to predict vehicle maneuvers, subsequently, assign it the required resource in advance without the need for scheduling request and granting process. This scheme improved the ability of 5G NR to support cooperative driving requirements. Moreover, we compare both traditional and proposed schemes discussing issues that arise from the introduction of prediction models and possible approaches for further enhancements in the future.

Vehicular networks are critical pieces in support of advanced intelligent transportation systems (ITS). These networks are formed by vehicles that can be connected to one another as well as to the infrastructure, and are subject to constant topology changes, disconnections, and data congestion. Each ITS application could have a different set of communication requirements, such as delay, bandwidth, and packet delivery ratio. Meeting these heterogeneous requirements in the complex dynamic environment of vehicular networks is a challenge. This paper develops a new framework for application-driven vehicular networks using 5G network slicing. We present the architecture of the proposed solution and design algorithms for heterogeneous traffic in a dynamic vehicular environment. Our simulations on realistic vehicular scenarios show significant improvements in network performance compared to the state-of-the-art approaches.

Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) utilize vehicular communication to collect information about the surrounding environment to make informed decisions about speed and maneuvering. This enables safe driving and decreases the number of accidents and thereby the associated fatalities. However, vehicular communication may suffer from high latency and low reliability, especially in dense vehicle environments, which may negatively affect the safety of CAVs. Therefore, it is crucial to study the impact of these metrics on the safety application performance while taking into account realistic CAV kinematics and dynamics. In this paper, we address this problem by comparing the performance of the Short Range Communication (DSRC) to that of the Fifth-Generation New Radio (5G-NR) and their impacts on the safety applications in the CAV environment under different settings. We develop a full-fledged simulation framework that can realistically model both vehicular mobility and communication and can capture the impact of communication on safety applications. Within this framework, we implement an important CAV's safety application, namely, the forward collision avoidance system, in which following vehicles use vehicular communications to gather information from leading vehicles to compute the safe speed and avoid collisions. We then use this framework to study and compare the performance safety of the forward collision avoidance system using both DSRC and 5G-NR communications. The results show that the packet delays and drops in communication networks can adversely affect CAV safety. The results also demonstrate that 5G is more capable of supporting the safety requirements under higher packet traffic loads and vehicle densities.

Mobile Edge Learning (MEL) is a decentralized learning paradigm that enables resource-constrained IoT devices to either learn a shared model without sharing the data, or to distribute the learning task with the data to other IoT devices and utilize their available resources. In the former case, IoT devices (a.k.a learners) need to be assigned an orchestrator to facilitate the learning and models' aggregation from different learners. Whereas in the latter case, IoT devices act as orchestrators and look for learners with available resources to distribute the learning task to. However, the coexistence of multiple learning problems in an environment with limited resources poses the learners-orchestrator assignment problem. To this end, we aim to develop an energy-efficient learner assignment and task allocation scheme, in which each orchestrator gets assigned a group of learners based on their communication channel qualities and computational resources. We formulate and solve a multi-objective optimization problem to minimize the total energy consumption and maximize the learning accuracy. To reduce the solution complexity, we also propose a lightweight heuristic algorithm that can achieve near-optimal performance. The conducted simulations show that our proposed approaches can execute multiple learning tasks efficiently and significantly reduce energy consumption compared to current state-of-art methods.

5G/6G small cells have the potential to enable sub- meter positioning accuracy in urban canyons and downtown scenarios, where global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) suffer the most. In order offer a robust 5G/6G time-based trilateration position solution, extended Kalman filter (EKF) is usually utilized to estimate the position. One of the main drawbacks of EKF lies in its linearization of state dynamics and processes, which would inevitably induce linearization errors. Such errors would propagate through the filter, which will eventually lead to positioning errors. In this paper, the analysis of the fundamental causes of such errors is undergone. Additionally, we propose to dynamically tune the Kalman filter’s measurement covariance matrix to automatically exclude base-stations (BSs) that induce high linearization errors, hence, mitigating the limitations of the EKF. The performance of the proposed method was tested against the traditional implementation of the EKF using realistic 5G/6G signal propagation data, obtained from Siradel’s S_5GChannel simulator. Our simulations include two realistic trajectories in downtown Toronto that are 1.63km and 2.69km long, respectively. The results show that the proposed method outperforms traditional the EKF implementation in both trajectories, as the 2D RMS/maximum positioning errors were reduced by 71.76%/84.11% and 51.18%/35.9% for the first and second trajectories respectively.

Wireless communication became an essential tool for modern Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) for information exchange. In spite of the many advantages wireless technology has, it puts the patients health in serious danger if no proper security mechanism is deployed. We aim to secure these devices while taking into consideration the limitations these small devices suffer from. IMDs have resources that are relatively simple and sometimes require surgery to be altered. Consequently, common security mechanisms cannot be simply implemented in fear of consuming all the resources dedicated to healthcare needs. A certain balance between security and efficiency must be sought in each IMD architecture. In this work, we propose a sequential and secure encrypted communication scheme for patients with multiple IMDs. We present a model that delivers the information generated by all IMDs in one packet to the final receiver. This information will be encrypted sequentially going from one IMD to the next. This scheme eliminates the need for single IMD authentications with the receiver. Instead of each IMD communicating independently with the same receiver, each device will send its information to a different IMD in a single communication action. Performing this way, the scheme would exploit the inherent properties of the entropy of the physiological signals to randomize the exchanged messages. The scheme succeeded in NIST tests with high rates around 95%. This relieves the IMDs from the need for the encryption in addition to a recovery rate of 100% for the proposed architecture. At the end, the final message will be attack- resistant with length < 1Kb in short handling time in order of 100 ms.

Federated Learning (FL) is a novel distributed learning paradigm in which local learning models are simultaneously trained using the stored data on multiple devices, then ultimately aggregated into a global model. A promising use case of FL is the training of a global model using the data collected by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during their flight, which is invaluable in scenarios in which an infrastructure cannot be accessed (e.g., disaster). However, this is challenging as limited resources are to be distributed between flight time, sensing, processing, and communication. In this paper, we address the resource problem for a set of heterogeneous UAVs with different computation and communication capabilities from distributed point of view. We propose the usage of Device-to-Device (D2D) communication to fairly distribute the data so-far collected by UAVs with different capabilities by posing it as an optimal transport problem. Our contribution is two-fold: (1) We obtain the fairest distribution of data given the UAVs’ computational capabilities such that global learning time is minimal; (2) We devise a scheme using Optimal Transport (OT) to achieve such a fair distribution between UAVs. The performance of the proposed techniques is demonstrated in an FL setting with different UAV topologies with the FL training done using the MNIST dataset.