Multi-RAT Enabled Edge Computing for URLLC and eMBB Services: Cooperative Evolutionary Computation Approach

Abstract

Multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) enabled mobile edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a promising paradigm for supporting diverse applications with heterogeneous service requirements. However, efficiently managing resources to accommodate both ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services remains challenging, especially in large-scale networks. In this paper, we investigate a joint optimization problem involving user association, task offloading, power and bandwidth allocation, and scheduling policies within a multi-RAT-enabled MEC system to efficiently address the heterogeneous demands of URLLC and eMBB services. We first formulate a generalized optimization problem and mathematically derive optimal power and task offloading strategies to reduce the search space. We then propose improved scheduling algorithms that sequentially update scheduling decisions based on arrival times at the edge server. Furthermore, we develop a matrix-based cooperative evolutionary computation framework with inner and outer agents to efficiently handle the large-scale optimization problem. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that our proposed approach significantly outperforms conventional scheduling methods and representative evolutionary algorithms. © 2002-2012 IEEE.