Personalized federated learning is a practical solution to provide personalized services for Internet of Things devices while protecting their privacy. However, recent research found that personalized federated learning is still vulnerable to attacks, and its privacy can still be compromised during the training process. With an increasing number of devices and more diverse data, information traceability is also much more complicated. To address these problems, this paper proposes pFedBlock, a blockchain-based split federated learning framework to alleviate privacy risks and enhance the traceability during model training. Through the application of blockchain decentralized and immutable characteristics, pFedBlock can save each model update in a secure way and preserve a trustworthy log for all training behaviors. Such design can be beneficial to protect the training process and minimize the possible attacks from adversarial behaviors. Meanwhile, we also design a hybrid aggregation strategy in the federated framework so that devices can perform model updates in a more secure way. Experimental analysis shows that compared with traditional personalized federated learning methods, pFedBlock can obtain better performance in both models performance and system security.

The rapid development of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has led to a surge of computation-intensive and latency-sensitive vehicular applications, which pose significant challenges to resource-constrained vehicles and conventional mobile edge computing (MEC) infrastructures. In dense urban scenarios, the high mobility of vehicles and the spatiotemporally uneven distribution of vehicular workloads often result in severe load imbalance among edge servers, degrading system performance. To address these challenges, this paper investigates a three-tier heterogeneous MEC-enabled IoV architecture that integrates vehicles, terrestrial base stations (BSs), and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In this architecture, the UAV acts as an elastic computing node that is dynamically deployed over hotspot regions to complement BS-based MEC, while task migration among edge servers is leveraged to alleviate localized overload. We formulate the multi-vehicle computation offloading and migration problem as a distributed game, where each vehicle autonomously selects among local computing, BS offloading, and BS-to-BS migration, while BS-to-UAV migration is available only when its nearest BS lies within the current UAV coverage region. A joint cost function that captures both computation latency and energy consumption is developed. By constructing an appropriate potential function, we prove that the proposed game admits a Nash equilibrium. Building on this property, a Workload-oriented Computation Offloading Game for UAV-assisted MEC (WCOG) is designed to enable scalable and distributed decision-making. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves near-optimal system performance, effectively balances server workloads, and significantly reduces the computation cost compared with benchmarks, while maintaining strong scalability under increasing vehicular density or expanding server scales.

This is a corrigendum for the article “DESIGN: Online Device Selection and Edge Association for Federated Synergy Learning-enabled AIoT” published in ACM Trans. Intell. Syst. Technol. 15, 5, Article 104 (November 2024), 28 pages.

Multi-view inference (MVI), which accepts images from multiple viewpoints as input of deep neural networks, is proposed to improve the inference accuracy of conventional single-view models. However, existing mechanisms face challenges in feature fusion and computation efficiency: (1) features from inter-view and intra-view contribute differently to inference, and uniform feature fusion limits MVI accuracy; (2) the sophisticated process and tremendous computational workload of MVI cause a considerable increase in inference latency. This article addresses the above challenges and enables high-accuracy and low-latency MVI for edge intelligence by proposing an end-to-edge synergistic multi-view inference (SMVI) framework. SMVI integrates the f eature f u sion module based on pairwise m utual- a ttention (FUMA), which incorporates the differences between features, enhancing MVI accuracy. To optimize the computation of FUMA-based SMVI, we present a joint optimization algorithm of r esource a llocation and m odel p artition (RAMP) to reduce MVI latency, considering device heterogeneity, dynamic network connection, and resource limitation in heterogeneous edge environments. We developed an SMVI prototype system with heterogeneous embedded GPUs and evaluated its performance in real-world MVI scenarios. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed mechanism achieves a notable MVI accuracy improvement of approximately 4% and accelerates the process by 4.08 × compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

Edge learning (EL) is an end-to-edge collaborative learning paradigm enabling devices to participate in model training and data analysis, opening countless opportunities for edge intelligence. As a promising EL framework, federated synergy learning (FSyL) mitigates the computation and communication overhead on resource-constrained devices by offloading partial model layers to the edge server for synergistic training. Nevertheless, due to the system and statistical heterogeneity, naively using existing FSyL methods is significantly time-consuming and causes accuracy degradation. Motivated by this issue, this paper introduces a novel FSyL framework that integrates multi-dimensional training optimization and formulates the edge learning cost minimization (ELCM) problem. To tackle the ELCM efficiently, we designOL-MG, anOnLineModel Splitting and Resource ProvisioningGame. Specifically, we first reformulate and decompose the original ELCM based on data quality evaluation. Then, given a model splitting decision, we determine the optimal resource provisioning in Sub-problem1, based on which optimal model splitting in Sub-problem2 is modeled as a potential game. Subsequently, we introduce a decentralized algorithm to find a Nash equilibrium (NE) solution. Furthermore, we further extendOL-MGto support a budget-aware multi-edge scenario. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed mechanism significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in cost-saving and accuracy improvement.

Recent advancements in federated learning have shown promising results in resource-constrained edge environments. However, with mobile devices becoming more capable of collecting data, individual client models are unable to utilize the available data due to their devices’ limited support for complex model training. Conversely, non-portable devices possess substantial computational resources, but the data they autonomously collect is insufficient to support the training of complex models. In this paper, we introduce HASFL, a novel split federated learning (SFL) framework that supports model structure heterogeneity across devices and decouples computation from the model. Through circular group training, HASFL enables mobile devices to utilize complex models to train their own data while ensuring that non-portable devices harness the data collected by mobile users. HASFL effectively addresses the challenges of applying advanced machine learning models in resource-constrained environments, leveraging the collective power of distributed devices without compromising data security. We implemented a circular group allocation method using the online algorithm to ensure cooperative training among heterogeneous models within each group while minimizing training time. In addition, we have conducted experiments to evaluate the performance of HASFL on various datasets and model architectures and analyzed the communication overhead of HASFL. The experimental results demonstrate that HASFL supports the training of heterogeneous models and significantly enhances the model’s accuracy with a relatively small increase in communication overhead.

Abstract Federated edge learning (FEEL) provides a promising device‐edge collaborative learning paradigm, which enables edge devices to parallel participate in model co‐creation while preserving user privacy, opening countless opportunities to enable edge intelligence. With the growing demand for intelligent services, extensive FEEL deployment is inevitable. Nevertheless, existing FL schemes neglect two unique features (i.e., resource heterogeneity and data heterogeneity) in real‐world edge learning and thus may negatively affect the training efficiency and accuracy. Specifically, (1) heterogeneous and limited device resources cause massive laggards, which bring intolerable training delay; (2) heterogeneous data distribution causes device quality divergence, bringing severe training accuracy degradation. This article proposes a split‐based FEEL framework and an adaptive model splitting and quality‐aware device association scheme (MSDA) to tackle the aforementioned challenges. MSDA contains two levels: at the model splitting level, according to device capability and model structure, an adaptive splitting mechanism is proposed to provide a low‐latency and privacy‐preserving model splitting strategy for each device and guide subsequent device association. At the device association level, each device is simulated as a player with a quality weight in the potential game. Then a quality‐aware decentralized device association mechanism is designed to ensure that more high‐quality devices upload local updates before the deadline with the help of the edge server. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that MSDA yields significant improvements, achieving up to 3.1 training speedup and 39% accuracy improvement compared to state‐of‐the‐art methods.

The artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) is an emerging technology that enables numerous AIoT devices to participate in big data analytics and machine learning (ML) model training, providing various customized intelligent services for industry manufacturing. Federated learning (FL) empowers AIoT applications with privacy-preserving distributed model training without sharing raw data. However, due to IoT devices’ limited computing and memory resources, existing FL approaches for AIoT applications cannot support efficient large-scale model training. Federated synergy learning (FSyL) is a promising collaborative paradigm that alleviates the computation and communication overhead on resource-constrained AIoT devices via offloading part of the ML model to the edge server for end-to-edge collaborative training. Existing FSyL works neither efficiently address the inter-round device selection to improve model diversity nor determine the intra-round edge association to reduce the training cost, which hinders the applications of FSyL-enable AIoT. Motivated by this issue, this article first investigates the bottlenecks of executing FSyL in AIoT. It builds an optimization model of joint inter-round device selection and intra-round edge association for balancing model diversity and training cost. To tackle the intractable coupling problem, we present a framework named Online DEvice SelectIon and EdGe AssociatioN for Cost-Diversity Tradeoffs FSyL (DESIGN). First, the edge association subproblem is extracted from the original problem, and game theory determines the optimal association decision for an arbitrary device selection. Then, based on the optimal association decision, device selection is modeled as a combinatorial multi-armed bandit (CMAB) problem. Finally, we propose an online mechanism to obtain joint DESIGN decisions. The performance of DESIGN is theoretically analyzed and experimentally evaluated on real-world datasets. The results show that DESIGN can achieve up to \(84.3\%\) in cost-saving with an accuracy improvement of \(23.6\%\) compared with the state-of-the-art.

Federated edge learning (FEEL) is a promising collaborative paradigm, which employs edge devices (EDs) to train machine learning models for a federation. It opens countless opportunities to enable edge intelligence. The increasingly diversified demands for intelligent services are driving the deployment of various federations at the edge. Existing works on FEEL focus on a single federation and ignore inter-federation device competition and intra-device resource allocation, which hinders the applications of FEEL. To address this issue, this article first investigates the bottlenecks of executing multiple federations and builds a joint optimization model as a two-stage Stackelberg game involving device selection and resource allocation. To tackle the problem efficiently, we present a game-theoretical approach namedDeviceSelection andResourceAllocation forMultipleFederationsGame (DSRAMF-G). First, following the arbitrary device selection of leaders (i.e., federations), the time cost minimization of followers (i.e., EDs) is modeled as a convex problem to obtain the optimal resource allocation. Then, based on followers’ optimal responses, device selection is modeled as a congestion game. We prove the existence of the Nash equilibrium and propose a decentralized mechanism. Finally, extensive experiments show that DSRAMF-G significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, achieving up to 5.9x training speedup and 2.8x resource-savings.

Multi-view inference can utilize visual information from several views like a human being and significantly improve accuracy in some scenes, but it inevitably incurs more computing overhead than traditional DNN inference. To meet the requirement of low latency in typical scenarios, we consider utilizing model partition technique of edge computing to speed up multi-view inference, and design a multi-view end-edge co-inference execution framework (MV-IEF) which can make use of both end and edge resources for multi-view inference tasks. However, when employing the framework simply, the efficiency of multi-view inference will be constrained by network dynamics and heterogeneity of devices corresponding to multiple views. To break this constraint, we establish an optimization model based on the framework to minimize the multi-view inference time and solve it on the basis of game theory. And meanwhile, we propose a joint optimization algorithm for multi-view resource allocation and model partition (MV-JRAMP), which can make remarkable decisions of resource allocation and model partiton according to network status and computing capabilities of devices. Finally, we build a prototype and evaluate the performance of MV-JRAMP. Experiments show that MV-JRAMP can accelerate multi-view inference by up to 3.71×.

With the development of artificial intelligence technology and intelligent devices, people show great interest in intelligent applications and services, but it is impossible to complete these compute-intensive AI tasks locally, especially video analysis tasks. Edge computing is regarded as an appropriate solution to these problems. In this paper, we study the multi-user multi-server edge-end collaboration video analytics task offloading problem aiming at minimizing the overall delay for each device to finish its task. Each device chooses whether to execute the task locally or to offload the task to an edge server, and which edge server to select. At the theoretical level, we model the joint problem of task offloading and resource allocation as a mixed integer programming problem. We first determine the optimal resource allocation policy with a given task offloading decision profile. Then, task offloading problem is modeled as a congestion game and propose a decentralized mechanism to achieve a Nash equilibrium. Moreover, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is efficient and can significantly and steadily improve the system performance, reducing the overall delay by 33.96% on average, compared with other algorithms.

Real-time analytics on video data demands intensive computation resources and high bandwidth consumption. Edge computing enables us to offload resource-intensive analytics tasks to nearby edge servers, effectively reducing the extended latency. Numerous studies have applied ROI encoding technology to decrease video data size, thereby decreasing transmission latency. However, ROI encoding will reduce inference accuracy and indirectly affect inference latency. Existing works have ignored these impacts, leading to significant performance degradation. In this paper, we first identified the necessity of considering video QP settings when offloading, and investigated the impacts of changing QP settings on accuracy and latency to demonstrate that adaptive offloading based on QP settings can improve the efficiency of video analytics. We formulate the problem of minimizing average latency to meet real-time requirements under accuracy constraints, and propose an online offloading algorithm called ROIAdaptor, based on a contextual multi-armed bandit method. Our algorithm is developed based on LinUCB, a contextual multi-armed bandit method, and operates online with historical information, achieving a provable performance bound. Simulation results show that ROIAdaptor can reduce the overall latency by an average of 35.7% and meet the requirements for real-time video analysis, with virtually no loss in accuracy.

Edge learning (EL) is an end-edge collaborative learning paradigm that enables numerous edge devices to participate in model training and data analysis, opening countless opportunities to enable edge intelligence. As is a promising EL approach, split edge learning (SPEL) alleviates the computation and communication overhead on resource-constrained devices via offloading part of the machine learning (ML) model to the edge server for cooperative training. Nevertheless, due to the system and statistical heterogeneity of the edge environment, naively using existing SPEL methods brings significantly time-consuming and accuracy degradation. Specifically, system heterogeneity causes intolerable time costs in each training round, while statistical heterogeneity further results in weight divergence and more training rounds to achieve global convergence. Motivated by this issue, this paper designs an efficient SPEL scheme to minimize the total time cost of participating devices. Specifically, we propose a novel SPEL framework and formulate the edge learning cost minimization (ELCM) problem that involves jointly optimizing model splitting and resource provisioning. We design OL-MG, i.e., OnLine Model Splitting and Resource Provisioning Game scheme, to solve the ELCM problem. In OL-MG, we first transform and decompose the original ELCM into two subproblems based on data quality evaluation. Second, we determine the optimal resource provisioning of Sub-problem1 with a given model splitting decision, based on which optimal model splitting of Sub-problem2 is modeled as a potential game. Then, we propose a decentralized algorithm to find a Nash equilibrium (NE) solution for the ELCM problem. Experimental results from both hardware prototype and simulation demonstrate that OL-MG outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, achieving up to 3.1x training cost savings and 40% accuracy improvement.

Nowadays, edge computing is widely adopted to resolve the emerging deep neural networks (DNNs)-driven intelligence scenarios with the requirement of low-latency and high-accuracy, which includes heterogeneous end devices and DNNs. In such scenarios, the influx of data and computation into a shared edge server incurs prohibitive latency. Thus, we exploit the advantage of Multi-exit DNNs (ME-DNNs) that tasks can exit early at appropriate depths to save inference time. However, naively using ME-DNNs in the heterogeneous edge still fails to deliver fast inference due to improper model surgery and resource allocation.

Due to the high demands of mobile video streaming, wireless networks have witnessed great pressure on increasing the transmitting rate. Crowdsourcing sets the trend of ensuring direct communication among the participants, thus expanding the bandwidth of networks, shunting the traffic volume of the core networks and improving the video service quality for mobile users. However, irregularly responding to the requestors poses a threat to the battery life of the mobile devices, and decreasing the service time and incomes of the providers remains challenging. To address this challenge, we propose a multi-objective crowdsourcing method, named MCM, for mobile video streaming. Technically, DBSCAN (Density-based Spatial Clustering for Applications with Noise) and IDP (Improved Dynamic Programming) are utilized to generate the service strategies. Consequently, experimental evaluations are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of MCM.

Abstract Cloudlet is a novel computing paradigm, introduced to the mobile cloud service framework, which moves the computing resources closer to the mobile users, aiming to alleviate the communication delay between the mobile devices and the cloud platform and optimize the energy consumption for mobile devices. Currently, the mobile applications, modeled by the workflows, tend to be complicated and computation‐intensive. Such workflows are required to be offloaded to the cloudlet or the remote cloud platform for execution. However, it is still a key challenge to determine the offloading resolvent for the deadline‐constrained workflows in the cloudlet‐based mobile cloud, since a cloudlet often has limited resources. In this paper, a multiobjective computation offloading method, named MCO, is proposed to address the above challenge. Technically, an energy consumption model for the mobile devices is established in the cloudlet‐based mobile cloud. Then, a corresponding computation offloading method, by improving Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II, is designed to achieve the goal of energy saving for all the mobile device while satisfying the deadline constraints of the workflows. Finally, extensive experimental evaluations are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method.

Fog computing is emerging as a powerful and popular computing paradigm to perform IoT (Internet of Things) applications, which is an extension to the cloud computing paradigm to make it possible to execute the IoT applications in the network of edge. The IoT applications could choose fog or cloud computing nodes for responding to the resource requirements, and load balancing is one of the key factors to achieve resource efficiency and avoid bottlenecks, overload, and low load. However, it is still a challenge to realize the load balance for the computing nodes in the fog environment during the execution of IoT applications. In view of this challenge, a dynamic resource allocation method, named DRAM, for load balancing in fog environment is proposed in this paper. Technically, a system framework for fog computing and the load‐balance analysis for various types of computing nodes are presented first. Then, a corresponding resource allocation method in the fog environment is designed through static resource allocation and dynamic service migration to achieve the load balance for the fog computing systems. Experimental evaluation and comparison analysis are conducted to validate the efficiency and effectiveness of DRAM.