Maximizing the latency fairness in UAV-assisted MEC system

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) assisted edge computing has risen as an assuring technique to accommodate ubiquitous edge computation for resource-limited devices. Thus, this paper proposes an approach to maximize the latency fairness in a UAV-assisted multi-access edge computing (MEC) system. To maximize latency fairness, the authors focus on minimizing the maximum latency experienced among the users. In here, multiple ground users (GUs) offload their tasks to MEC UAV in the absence or unavailability of ground servers due to a disaster or heavy traffic where an iterative algorithm is proposed to minimize the maximum latency among the users subject to minimum control link rate and total power constraints. Sequentially, the UAVs' 3D location, offloading ratio, GUs' transmit power and GUs' computational capacity are optimized. The location of the UAV is optimized by using the novel approach, guided pattern search algorithm while the altitude of the UAV is optimized by analyzing the elevation angle dependant behaviour of the channel gain. A simple approach is utilized for optimizing the offloading ratio of the users by considering the problem as minimizing the point-wise maximum of two convex functions while the bisection method is used to optimize the power allocation. Numerical simulation results illustrate that the proposed approach outperforms other baseline approaches in convergence, minimizing the maximum latency and maximizing and maintaining the fairness among the GUs. Furthermore, it is proved that the guided pattern search algorithm converges at least 3.5 times better while the proposed combined optimization gives 400% fairness gain, in comparison with the baseline approach

Intelligent UAV Deployment for a Disaster-Resilient Wireless Network

Deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as aerial base stations (ABSs) has been considered to be a feasible solution to provide network coverage in scenarios where the conventional terrestrial network is overloaded or inaccessible due to an emergency situation. This article studies the problem of optimal placement of the UAVs as ABSs to enable network connectivity for the users in such a scenario. The main contributions of this work include a less complex approach to optimally position the UAVs and to assign user equipment (UE) to each ABS, such that the total spectral efficiency (TSE) of the network is maximized, while maintaining a minimum QoS requirement for the UEs. The main advantage of the proposed approach is that it only requires the knowledge of UE and ABS locations and statistical channel state information. The optimal 2-dimensional (2D) positions of the ABSs and the UE assignments are found using K-means clustering and a stable marriage approach, considering the characteristics of the air-to-ground propagation channels, the impact of co-channel interference from other ABSs, and the energy constraints of the ABSs. Two approaches are proposed to find the optimal altitudes of the ABSs, using search space constrained exhaustive search and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The numerical results show that the PSO-based approach results in higher TSE compared to the exhaustive search-based approach in dense networks, consuming similar amount of energy for ABS movements. Both approaches lead up to approximately 8-fold energy savings compared to ABS placement using naive exhaustive search

A Blockchain-based Decentralized Machine Learning Framework for Collaborative Intrusion Detection within UAVs

UAVs have numerous emerging applications in various domains of life. However, it is extremely challenging to gain the required level of public acceptance of UAVs without proving safety and security for human life. Conventional UAVs mostly depend upon the centralised server to perform data processing with complex machine learning algorithms. In fact, all the conventional cyber attacks are applicable on the transmission and storage of data in UAVs. While their impact is extremely serious because UAVs are highly dependent on smart systems that extensively utilise machine learning techniques in order to take decisions in human absence. In this regard, we propose to enhance the performance of UAVs with a decentralised machine learning framework based on blockchain. The proposed framework has the potential to significantly enhance the integrity and storage of data for intelligent decision making among multiple UAVs. We present the use of blockchain to achieve decentralized predictive analytics and present a framework that can successfully apply and share machine learning models in a decentralised manner. We evaluate our system using collaborative intrusion detection as a case-study in order to highlight the feasibility and effectiveness of using blockchain based decentralised machine learning approach in UAVs and other similar applications