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A truthful mechanism for multi-access multi-server multi-task resource allocation in mobile edge computing

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Abstract

This paper addresses multi-access multi-server multi-task resource allocation in mobile edge computing (MEC). Our aim is to maximize social welfare for heterogeneous MEC servers from multiple access points (APs) providing heterogeneous virtual machine instances to the mobile devices (MDs) within the coverage area. In the system model, each MD has multiple tasks, and tasks can offload to more than one MEC server through different APs within its direct communication range. We formulated the problem with an auction-based model to provide flexible service. However, the MDs are self-interested and can misreport their preferences, leading to inefficient resource allocation. We designed an optimal approximation mechanism to solve this problem. Then, we showed that this mechanism achieves individual rationality and truthfulness, that is, the MDs had no incentive to declare untrue values. In addition, we analyzed the approximation ratio of our truthfulness mechanism. The task allocation problem was also considered, and the proposed approximation algorithm could stop at any step and provide reasonable performance. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed approximation mechanism provides near-optimal social welfare in a reasonable time and effectively reduces energy consumption.

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Data availibility statement

The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Special Basic Cooperative Research Innovation Programs of Qujing Science and Technology Bureau & Qujing Normal University under Grant KJLH2023YB12, in part by Scientific Research Programs of Yunnan Provincial Education Department under Grant 2023J1033, in part by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Education under Grant 2023J1010, in part by the Qujing Education Planning Joint Fund under Grant QJQSKT2022ZD03, QJQSKT2022YB08, in part by the Yunnan Education Science Planning Fund under Grant BE22034，and in part by the Yunnan University of Economics and Management Research Fund under Grant 2024JK16. The founding recipient is Jun Liu and Xi Liu. All authors have signed the consent form.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Engineering, Qujing Normal University, Qujing, China

    Xi Liu

  2. Institute of Applied Mathematics, Qujing Normal University, Qujing, China

    Jun Liu

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  1. Xi Liu
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  2. Jun Liu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Xi Liu and Jun Liu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xi Liu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xi Liu.

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Liu, X., Liu, J. A truthful mechanism for multi-access multi-server multi-task resource allocation in mobile edge computing. Peer-to-Peer Netw. Appl. 17, 532–548 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-023-01574-x

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