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A game-theoretic approach to computation offloading in mobile cloud computing

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Abstract

We consider a three-tier architecture for mobile and pervasive computing scenarios, consisting of a local tier of mobile nodes, a middle tier (cloudlets) of nearby computing nodes, typically located at the mobile nodes access points but characterized by a limited amount of resources, and a remote tier of distant cloud servers, which have practically infinite resources. This architecture has been proposed to get the benefits of computation offloading from mobile nodes to external servers while limiting the use of distant servers whose higher latency could negatively impact the user experience. For this architecture, we consider a usage scenario where no central authority exists and multiple non-cooperative mobile users share the limited computing resources of a close-by cloudlet and can selfishly decide to send their computations to any of the three tiers. We define a model to capture the users interaction and to investigate the effects of computation offloading on the users’ perceived performance. We formulate the problem as a generalized Nash equilibrium problem and show existence of an equilibrium. We present a distributed algorithm for the computation of an equilibrium which is tailored to the problem structure and is based on an in-depth analysis of the underlying equilibrium problem. Through numerical examples, we illustrate its behavior and the characteristics of the achieved equilibria.

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Notes

  1. http://nsn.com/portfolio/liquid-net/intelligent-broadband-management/liquid-applications.

  2. The VI \((K,F)\), where \(K\subseteq \mathbb {R}^n\) is a closed convex set and \(F:K \rightarrow \mathbb {R}^n\) is a continuous function, is the problem of finding a point \(\bar{x}\in K\), such that \(F(\bar{x})^T(x-\bar{x}) \ge 0\), for all \(x\in K\).

  3. We recall that \(F\) is monotone on \(K\) if \( (F(y) - F(x))^T (y -x) \, \ge \, 0, \, \forall y,x \in K. \)

  4. We recall that \(F_e\) is strongly monotone on \(K_e\) if \( (F_e(y) - F_e(x))^T (y -x) \, \ge \, m \Vert y-x\Vert ^2, \, \forall y,x \in K_e \) for some fixed, positive \(m\). Note that every strongly monotone function is monotone but the vice versa does not necessarily hold. If \(F_e\) is continuously differentiable it is known that \(F_e\) is strongly monotone on \(K_e\) if and only if \(JF_e(x, \rho ) - mI\) is positive semidefinite for all points in \(K_e\).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering and Computer Science Engineering, University of Roma “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

    Valeria Cardellini, Vittoria De Nitto Personé, Vincenzo Grassi, Francesco Lo Presti & Veronica Piccialli

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Salaria 113, 00198, Rome, Italy

    Valerio Di Valerio

  3. Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Ariosto 25, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Francisco Facchinei

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  1. Valeria Cardellini
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  2. Vittoria De Nitto Personé
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  3. Valerio Di Valerio
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  4. Francisco Facchinei
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  5. Vincenzo Grassi
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  7. Veronica Piccialli
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Correspondence to Veronica Piccialli.

Additional information

The work of Facchinei was supported by the MIUR project PLATINO (Grant Agreement n. PON01_01007). The work of Piccialli was partially supported by Italian MIUR project PRIN-COFIN n. 2012JXB3YF_004.

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Cardellini, V., De Nitto Personé, V., Di Valerio, V. et al. A game-theoretic approach to computation offloading in mobile cloud computing. Math. Program. 157, 421–449 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-015-0881-6

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