Online Resource Allocation for Semantic-Aware Edge Computing Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semantic-aware resource allocation framework for MEC systems that reduces energy consumption by transmitting extracted semantic information instead of raw data, using an online algorithm based on Lyapunov optimization.

Contribution

It proposes a novel joint semantic-aware resource management framework with an online low-complexity algorithm for MEC systems, optimizing energy use while meeting delay and processing constraints.

Findings

Achieves up to 41.8% energy reduction.

Develops an online algorithm with Lyapunov optimization.

Provides closed-form solutions for resource variables.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a semantic-aware joint communication and computation resource allocation framework for MEC systems. In the considered system, random tasks arrive at each terminal device (TD), which needs to be computed locally or offloaded to the MEC server. To further release the transmission burden, each TD sends the small-size extracted semantic information of tasks to the server instead of the original large-size raw data. An optimization problem of joint semanticaware division factor, communication and computation resource management is formulated. The problem aims to minimize the energy consumption of the whole system, while satisfying longterm delay and processing rate constraints. To solve this problem, an online low-complexity algorithm is proposed. In particular, Lyapunov optimization is utilized to decompose the original coupled long-term problem into a series of decoupled deterministic problems without requiring the realizations of future task arrivals and channel gains. Then, the block coordinate descent method and successive convex approximation algorithm are adopted to solve the current time slot deterministic problem by observing the current system states. Moreover, the closed-form optimal solution of each optimization variable is provided. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields up to 41.8% energy reduction compared to its counterpart without semantic-aware allocation.