Energy-efficient user selection and resource allocation in mobile edge computing

Mobile edge computing (MEC) as a new type of computing model can expand the computing power of cloud computing to the edge of radio access network (RAN), which brings a large number of applications close for end user. Compared to traditional cloud computing, computation tasks being offloaded to edge clouds nearby to execute can reduce transmission delay and energy consumption. However, how to select the best edge cloud in a dense cell to execute tasks remains challenging. To address this challenge, in this paper we propose joint user selection and resource allocation algorithm in MEC to maximize the user’s energy efficiency, defined as the ratio of user throughput to its energy consumption. We formulate the energy efficiency maximization problem as a mixed integer fractional nonlinear optimization problem, which involves both users’ offloading selection and uplink transmission power. To solve this non-convex optimization problem, we transform it into an equivalent subtractive convex optimization problem by relaxation transformation method, and furthermore provide the corresponding optimal solution of user selection and power allocation. Numerical results show that compared with other selection schemes, the proposed optimal scheme has a significant improvement in energy efficiency.