To address the limitations of existing wireless networks for demanding applications like brain-computer interfaces and intelligent transportation systems, we propose an advanced framework for joint resource allocation and task offloading across integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (TN-NTN). This framework utilizes multiple layers, including ground users, UAVs, HAPs, and satellites, to improve service quality and immersive experiences, particularly in scenarios like Metaverse applications. Ground users request resources, while UAVs and HAPs serve as resource providers, and satellites ensure reliable communication during emergencies. A double auction-based incentive scheme is employed in which operators control UAV and HAP resources to maximize utility, and users aim to minimize computation costs and protect data privacy. To handle the complexity of the operator-user interaction, which results in an NP-hard optimization problem, we applied a hierarchical multi-agent federated deep reinforcement learning (FeDRL) approach. Our simulation results demonstrate that the FeDRL algorithm significantly improves social welfare by 6.38%, 17.43%, and 28.73% over modified MADDPG, FRL, and DDPG algorithms, respectively.

Modern edge cloud platforms must efficiently deploy and route containerized microservice DAGs under strict latency and cost constraints, while adapting to rapidly changing workloads and infrastructure states. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) schedulers adapt well to dynamics but often lack semantic awareness of service intent and task dependencies, resulting in suboptimal decisions in unseen scenarios. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a Retrieval-Augmented Generation-assisted DRL (RAG-DRL) framework that integrates a lightweight DRL agent with a graph-based RAG module powered by a partially frozen LLM. A dynamic memory graph encodes contextual information such as node resources, network latencies, and SLA feedback. The LLM retrieves relevant historical deployments and current service intents to generate soft placement plans and reward estimates, which guide the DRL agent. These priors accelerate convergence, improve generalization across diverse conditions, and ensure real-time responsiveness. Evaluations on a realistic urban-scale edge cloud testbed confirm that RAG-DRL significantly reduces SLA violations, end-to-end latency, and resource imbalance, outperforming modern container-based schedulers. Our framework converges faster, maintains latency below 65 ms on scale, limits SLA violations to 12% under heavy load, and achieves 90 % resource utilization with balanced distribution.

Sixth generation (6G) networks deploy unmanned aerial vehicles and mobile edge computing to provide collaborative computing and reliable connectivity for resource-limited mobile devices (MDs). However, due to the untrusted and broadcast nature of wireless transmission among communicating MDs and computing resource providers, ensuring the security of resource transactions will be challenging. Blockchain-based resource-sharing systems have been proposed to address security issues. However, these systems use existing consensus mechanisms like Proof-of-Work that consume massive amounts of system resources. In addressing this, some studies attempted to use single-agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in leader selection. Nevertheless, these solutions overlooked the intelligence and flexibility of blockchain configuration, and a single-point of failure can cause the system to fail. We propose a multiagent distributed deep deterministic policy gradient (MAD3PG)-assisted consensus mechanism for blockchain-based collaborative resource sharing to address these issues. First, we propose a stochastic game-based incentive-mechanism to encourage consensus nodes to participate in transaction validation. Then, we formulate the optimization problem of node selection and blockchain configuration as a Markov decision process and solve it with the MAD3PG algorithm. With MAD3PG, the agents select consensus nodes based on their experience and available resources and dynamically adjust blockchain settings. The simulation results show that MAD3PG outperforms the benchmarks in maximizing throughput and incentive while minimizing block production latency.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) rely on high-precision road networks, which are particularly scarce in indoor parking. Existing methods depend on expensive hardware (e.g., LiDAR) or manual mapping, both of which are costly and inefficient. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled large-scale data collection and connectivity, offering new opportunities for automated road network extraction. OpenStreetMap (OSM), as a crowdsourced IoT-driven platform, provides multi-layer geospatial data, including the Road Network Layer (RNL), Lane Boundary Layer (LBL), and Turn Sign Layer (TSL). However, OSM data often suffers from incompleteness and noisy connectivity, affecting the continuity and accuracy of road networks. This paper introduces OSM2Net, a novel framework designed to extract road networks from individual layers and leverage multi-layer data to construct directed road networks. Specifically, OSM2Net rasterizes noisy OSM data into bitmaps for image processing and multi-layer fusion. By leveraging the topology relationship between lane boundaries and road networks, a Lane-Road Map Generator (LRMG) creates a simulated dataset for training. Then, utilizing the simulated dataset, a Lane2Net model is designed to extract road networks from sparse lane boundary images. The framework then vectorizes bitmaps into a lightweight, undirected road network and refines it into a directed network by extracting and matching turn sign information. Experimental results show that Lane2Net achieves Intersection over Union (IoU) of 93% and 92% using simulated and real-world datasets, respectively. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets confirm that OSM2Net delivers robust completeness and high-quality road network extraction.

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) identification is the key technique to improve the accuracy of the channel impulse response (CIR) based ultrawideband (UWB) positioning system. However, most existing NLOS identification approaches are tailored to static environments and often encounter difficulties in dynamic settings with both temporal and spatial variations, particularly when dealing with limited and hard samples. This paper introduces a hard sample meta-learning (HSML) approach to address the issues of NLOS identification across different scenarios and domains. HSML includes two phases: a hard sample meta-training phase and a fine-grained meta-testing phase. During the meta-training phase, we train a two-loop learning network using CIR from multiple scenarios (tasks). The inner loop focuses on learning task-specific features, while the outer loop captures cross-task generalization properties using a cross-entropy loss. Hard samples are identified based on estimated residuals for each task, and a new dataset is created, consisting of both hard samples and samples with small residuals. To improve the robustness against hard samples, we implement a residual-corrected focal loss, which is used to retrain the network on this new dataset. In the fine-grained meta-testing phase, we apply a filtering mechanism based on the tendency of estimated residuals during fine-tuning. This mitigates the risk of poor performance caused by anomalous samples. We validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed HSML method using two datasets containing multiple real-world scenarios. Our experimental results demonstrate that HSML outperforms existing models in terms of identification accuracy, robustness and generalization performance.

Wireless positioning in environments where global positioning system (GPS) signals are unavailable—such as indoors, underground, and underwater—has become a research hotspot in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, most existing traditional wireless positioning technologies can only achieve desirable results in environments with guaranteed line-of-sight (LoS) paths. In contrast, magnetoquasistatic (MQS) positioning technology has demonstrated strong competitiveness in the these environments due to its robust penetration capabilities. Based on recent state-of-the-art research, this article presents a comprehensive and exhaustive survey of MQS positioning, focusing on the foundation knowledge of MQS fields and the application of MQS positioning in various scenarios. Additionally, different existing and innovative solutions/methods for solving MQS positioning-related problems are presented, highlighting their pros and cons. Furthermore, this article categorizes MQS positioning according to their transmitter-receiver array combinations. Finally, critical challenges and future research prospects are presented. With this survey, we aim to provide a complete roadmap of previous and current research trends, identify research gaps, and suggest future research directions that will guide researchers in their subsequent advanced studies on MQS positioning.

Efficient trajectory planning in Autonomous Valet Parking (AVP) remains challenging due to multiple vehicle interactions and environmental complexities. Existing single-agent Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches face challenges in balancing complexity, convergence, and knowledge efficiency, often resulting in increased collisions and longer travel times. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Bio-inspired Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning (BERL) framework for multi-vehicle collaborative trajectory planning, where each vehicle is modeled as a Fusion Architecture for Learning and Cognition Network (FALCON) agent based on Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART). The BERL framework comprises three core modules: 1)Meme Reinforcement Learning (MRL), which enables agents to learn independently and adapt to changing environments; 2)Expert-Guided Evolutionary Learning (EGEL), which facilitates knowledge transfer from expert agents to less experienced ones, enhancing coordination; and 3)Integrated Forgetting and Memory Optimization (IFMO), which optimizes memory use and reduces algorithm complexity. Additionally, the BERL framework supports model and sensor quality heterogeneity in the multi-vehicle trajectory planning scenario. Finally, we build an AVP Simulation (AVPS) platform to validate the performance of the proposed framework. Comprehensive simulation results demonstrate that the BERL framework improves success rate and parking efficiency by at least 15.7% and 16.7%, respectively, as compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. Additionally, the proposed IFMO module reduces the number of memes in the FALCON agent by 30.2% while maintaining stable performance.

Resource sharing in radio access networks (RAN) can be conceptualized as a resource trading process between infrastructure providers (InPs) and multiple mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), where InPs lease essential network resources, such as spectrum and infrastructure, to MVNOs. Given the dynamic nature of RANs, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is a more suitable approach to decision-making and resource optimization that ensures adaptive and efficient resource allocation strategies. In RAN slicing, DRL struggles due to imbalanced data distribution and reliance on high-quality training data. In addition, the trade-off between the global solution and individual agent goals can lead to oscillatory behavior, preventing convergence to an optimal solution. Therefore, we propose a collaborative intelligent resource trading framework with a graph-based digital twin (DT) for multiple InPs and MVNOs based on Federated DRL. First, we present a customized mutual policy distillation scheme for resource trading, where complex MVNO teacher policies are distilled into InP student models and vice versa. This mutual distillation encourages collaboration to achieve personalized resource trading decisions that reach the optimal local and global solution. Second, the DT uses a graph-based model to capture the dynamic interactions between InPs and MVNOs to improve resource-trade decisions. DT can accurately predict resource prices and demand from MVNO to provide high-quality training data. In addition, DT identifies the underlying patterns and trends through advanced analytics, enabling proactive resource allocation and pricing strategies. The simulation results and analysis confirm the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework to an unbalanced data distribution.

Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning (FDRL) for Radio Access Network (RAN) Slicing offers a promising approach for optimizing resource allocation and network performance, while also preserving data privacy for multiple tenants. However, the inherently non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) nature of data, stemming from the diverse services and unique characteristics of RAN slices, poses significant challenges. This heterogeneity can disrupt the standard assumptions FDRL makes, leading to model training inefficiencies and potentially suboptimal slicing decisions. Addressing this non-IID challenge is imperative to harness the full potential of FDRL in RAN slicing and to ensure seamless, adaptive, and efficient resource sharing among the tenants. Hence, we propose FeDistSlice, a federated distillation slicing framework wherein multiple decision agents collaborate in real time, optimizing resource allocation tailored to each tenant's specific characteristics. Motivated by collaborative intelligence, we introduced a customized mutual policy distillation (MPD) strategy to foster collaboration across multiple tenants. This innovation allows for the creating of personalized models tailored to each agent's unique requirements and context. Through MPD, these models can collaboratively learn and refine their policies by leveraging insights from other agents within the network. Simulation results show that FeDistSlice converges more effectively and achieves increased robustness to non-IID data.

Crowdsourcing is an effective method to alleviate the burden of conducting a site-survey procedure for localization tasks. However, crowdsourced data is typically inaccurately and scarcely annotated, rendering accurate localization a rather challenging problem. To alleviate this problem, we propose VRLoc, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based unsupervised wireless localization framework using crowdsourced trajectory data. The proposed VRLoc primarily encompasses three components, i.e., a robust K-means (RKM) clustering method for generating a series of virtual reference points (VRPs), DRL for determining the physical layout for VRPs, and online localization based on VRPs. Specifically, the proposed RKM method employs a density-based approach for the initialization of cluster centers, rather than the commonly used random solution, yielding repeatable and reliable VRP generation results. To accurately determine the physical locations for VRPs, we develop a modified soft actor-critic (SAC)- based VRP layout method with multiple objectives, i.e., the connection topology among VRPs, the floor-plan information, and the near-field condition. Then, we effectively predict locations of target users by utilizing classification models to match the online collected samples with the VRPs annotated by physical locations. The proposed framework is advantageous in achieving high-accuracy unsupervised localization, with the VRPs bridging the unlabeled crowdsourced data and physical location space. Both experimental and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed VRLoc framework as an accurate and practical solution for unsupervised localization.

The industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and network slicing (NS) paradigms are key enablers of the industrial revolution in current and future mobile networks. However, peer-to-peer (P2P) resource blocks (RBs) exchange to match supply and demand in sliced IIoT networks requires proper incentivization and renegotiations between the service providers (SPs). This paper models the business strategic interactions between seller and buyer SPs as a coalitional game in which sellers form coalitions to set RB prices and buyers join coalitions to determine their best-response RB demand. The aim is to maximize the profit of the seller coalition and minimize the expenses of the buyer coalition while jointly contributing to maximize system RB utilization. Due to the uncertainty of network traffic, we propose a coalitional game-guided multiagent reinforcement learning approach that takes the output of the coalitional game as the starting Nash equilibrium (NE) and computes the optimal price and demand strategies of the coalitions regardless of network condition changes. Simulation results and analysis prove the efficacy of the proposed approach in terms of optimizing seller and buyer coalition payoffs, as well as maximizing the overall RB utilization.

The integration of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) with aerial platforms introduces novel potential for the Metaverse world by providing low-latency and highly reliable computing and communication services at the network edge. Nevertheless, this integration presents critical challenges, such as low Quality of Experience (QoE) due to the dynamic nature of aerial platforms, high resource demands, and the requirements for real-time data processing in the Metaverse environment. To address these challenges, we propose a Combinatorial Client-Master Multiagent Deep Reinforcement Learning (CCM-MADRL) based joint resource allocation and QoE maximization framework to enable intelligent real-time decision-making in aerial MEC enabled Metaverse services. We form a collaborative ecosystem where agents are designed to represent both Metaverse service providers and aerial platforms to promote fairness and efficiency in resource allocation, as well as optimize service delivery. By incorporating CCM, our approach considers diverse metrics, such as latency, reliability, meta-distance, and energy efficiency, to ensure a holistic optimization of Metaverse services. The MADRL approach enables adaptive decision-making, allowing the system to respond to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of Metaverse applications. Results from simulations that mimic realistic Metaverse scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed CCM-MADRL framework in terms of improved service performance, reduced latency, cost, and virtual meta-distance, maximized average QoE utility of Metaverse users, and enhanced resource utilization compared to baseline algorithms.

The emergence of network slicing as a flagship technology in 5G networks has not only enhanced network expansion and flexibility in resource management for service continuity, but also provided an avenue for establishing a viable market for resource sharing. To optimize the network's resource usage, stakeholders are encouraged to take pragmatic steps toward dynamic resource sharing. This paper designs a techno-economic model for the strategic interactions among multiple competing mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and their users in a trading marketplace. We formulate the dynamic pricing problem as a two-stage Stackelberg game, where the MVNOs are leaders, and the users are followers. In the first stage, the MVNOs compete to set their differentiated unit prices using a negotiation mechanism while considering system-level network load. Then, the users decide their purchasing volumes to match the prices of the MVNOs. We transform the game-based optimization problem into a stochastic Markov decision process (MDP) problem and propose a multi-agent deep Q-network (MADQN) method that obtains an optimal solution for the formulated game. Simulation results and analysis reveal that the proposed algorithm achieves convergence under the competitive pricing scheme (CPS) and independent pricing scheme (IPS) while enhancing MVNOs and users’ utilities at acceptable levels.

Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing enables resource sharing among multiple tenants and is an essential feature for next-generation mobile networks. Usually, a centralized controller aggregates available resource pools from multiple tenants to increase spectrum availability. In dynamic resource allocation, a tenant could behave strategically by adjusting its preferences based on perceived conditions to maximize its utility. Slice tenants may lie about the resources needed to gain greater utility. Such behavior could lead to poor resource utilization due to excess resources acquired by lying tenants and resource shortages because slice tenants choose not to purchase high-priced resources to save costs. Furthermore, in a scenario with many slice tenants, the centralized controller can become overwhelmed by the number of requests. This, in turn, can lead to slower response times and higher latency, resulting in poor resource utilization and QoS performance of slice tenants. Therefore, this paper proposes a peer-to-peer (P2P) approach to resource trading, where slice tenants communicate directly instead of relying on a centralized orchestrator. This design is motivated by the need for slice tenants to collaborate effectively. We model the interaction between tenants in a Stackelberg multi-leader and multi-follower game and solve the game with multi-agent deep reinforcement learning with an incentive-reward model to achieve the Stackelberg equilibrium. Furthermore, we propose a decentralized resource trading framework by integrating blockchain technology and federated deep reinforcement learning, enabling network tenants to perform inter-slice resource sharing securely. The simulation results show that the proposed mechanism has significant performance improvements over existing implementations.

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks enable gigabit-per-second data speeds, minimal latency, and reliable Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. Thus, network slicing (NS) has gained enormous interest due to its ability to improve resource allocation. Due to the exponential growth of IoT data, it is difficult for the infrastructure providers (InPs) to determine the appropriate resource to allocate to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). In addition, MVNOs and IoT devices may use self-serving tactics that cause MVNOs to violate service level agreements (SLAs). Therefore, a fundamental problem in NS is capturing the interaction between MVNOs and IoT devices and ensuring efficient use of InP resources. This article proposes a two-tier resource allocation technique for NS involving a monopolistic market between an InP, multiple MVNOs, and IoT devices. First, we model the upper tier problem as a Markov decision problem (MDP) and design a federated deep reinforcement learning-based resource allocation algorithm (FDRL-RA) to explore the optimization solution. At the lower tier, we model a trading market between MVNOs and IoT devices as a two-stage Stackelberg game, where MVNOs set their unit prices and IoT devices set their purchase quantities. We use the backward induction method to analyze the proposed Stackelberg game under a competitive pricing scheme (CPS) and independent pricing scheme (IPS), which ensures high MVNOs’ profit and users’ utility at acceptable levels. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm converges to the optimal solution and effectively maximizes utility under different pricing schemes while providing a high degree of privacy.

Network slicing (NS) is envisioned as an emerging paradigm for accommodating different virtual networks on a common physical infrastructure. Considering the integration of blockchain and NS, a secure decentralized spectrum trading platform can be established for autonomous radio access network (RAN) slicing. Moreover, the realization of proper incentive mechanisms for fair spectrum trading is crucial for effective RAN slicing. This paper proposes a novel hierarchical framework for blockchain-empowered spectrum trading for NS in RAN. Specifically, we deploy a consortium blockchain platform for spectrum trading among spectrum providers and buyers for slice creation, and autonomous slice adjustment. For slice creation, the spectrum providers are infrastructure providers (InPs) and buyers are mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Then, underloaded MVNOs with extra spectrum to spare, trade with overloaded MVNOs, for slice spectrum adjustment. For proper incentive maximization, we propose a three-stage Stackelberg game framework among InPs, seller MVNOs, and buyer MVNOs, for joint optimal pricing and demand prediction strategies. Then, a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) method is designed to achieve a Stackelberg equilibrium (SE). Security assessment and extensive simulation results confirm the security and efficacy of our proposed method in terms of players’ utility maximization and fairness, compared with other baselines.

The emergence of new business and technological models for urban-related transportation has revealed the need for transportation network companies (TNCs). Most research works on TNCs optimize the interests of drivers and passengers, and the operator assuming vehicle resources remain unchanged, but ignore the optimization of resource utilization and satisfaction from the perspective of flexible and controllable vehicle resources. In fact, the load of the scene is variable in time, which necessitates the flexible control of resources. Drivers wish to effectively utilize their vehicle resources to maximize profits. Passengers desire to spend minimum time waiting and the platform cares about the commission they can accrue from successful trips. In this article, we propose an adaptive intelligent cruise guidance and vehicle resource management model to balance vehicle resource utilization and request success rate, while improving platform revenue. We propose an advanced deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method to autonomously learn the statuses and guide the vehicles to hotspot areas where they can pick orders. We assume the number of online vehicles in the scene is flexible and the learning agent can autonomously change the number of online vehicles in the system according to the real-time load to improve effective vehicle resource utilization. An adaptive reward mechanism is enforced to control the importance of vehicle resource utilization and request success rate at decision steps. The simulation results and analysis reveal that our proposed DRL-based scheme balances vehicle resource utilization and request success rate at acceptable levels while improving the platform revenue, compared with other baseline algorithms.

The advent of radio access network (RAN) slicing is envisioned as a new paradigm for accommodating different virtualized networks on a single infrastructure in 5G and beyond. Consequently, infrastructure providers (InPs) desire virtualized networks to share their subleased resources for effective resource management. Nonetheless, security and privacy challenges in the wireless network deter operators from collaborating with one another for resource trading. Lately, blockchain technology has received overwhelming attention for secure resource trading thanks to its security features. This paper proposes a novel hierarchical framework for blockchain-based resource trading among peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), for autonomous resource slicing in 5G RAN. Specifically, a consortium blockchain network that supports hyperledger smart contract (SC) is deployed to set up secure resource trading among seller and buyer MVNOs. With the aim of designing a fair incentive mechanism, we model the pricing and demand problem of the seller and buyers as a two-stage Stackelberg game, where the seller MVNO is the leader and buyer MVNOs are followers. To achieve a Stackelberg equilibrium (SE) for the formulated game, a dueling deep Q-network (Dueling DQN) scheme is designed to achieve optimal pricing and demand policies for autonomous resource allocation at negotiation interval. Comprehensive simulation results analysis prove that the proposed scheme reduces double spending attacks by 12% in resource trading settings, and maximizes the utilities of players. The proposed scheme also outperforms deep Q-Network (DQN), Q-learning (QL) and greedy algorithm (GA), in terms of slice and system level satisfaction and resource utilization.

In the fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks, Edge-Internet-of-Things (EIoT) devices are envisioned to generate huge amounts of data. Due to the limitation of computation capacity and battery life of devices, all tasks cannot be processed by these devices. However, mobile-edge computing (MEC) is a very promising solution enabling offloading of tasks to nearby MEC servers to improve quality of service. Also, during emergency situations in areas where network failure exists, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be deployed to restore the network by acting as Aerial Base Stations and computational nodes for the edge network. In this article, we consider a central network controller who trains observations and broadcasts the trained data to a multi-UAV cluster network. Each UAV cluster head acts as an agent and autonomously allocates resources to EIoT devices in a decentralized fashion. We propose model-free deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based collaborative computation offloading and resource allocation (CCORA-DRL) scheme in an aerial to ground (A2G) network for emergency situations, which can control the continuous action space. Each agent learns efficient computation offloading policies independently in the network and checks the statuses of the UAVs through Jain’s Fairness index. The objective is minimizing task execution delay and energy consumption and acquiring an efficient solution by adaptive learning from the dynamic A2G network. Simulation results reveal that our scheme through deep deterministic policy gradient, effectively learns the optimal policy, outperforming A3C, deep$Q$-network and greedy-based offloading for local computation in stochastic dynamic environments.

The Internet of Things (IoT) edge network has connected lots of heterogeneous smart devices, thanks to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their groundbreaking emerging applications. Limited computational capacity and energy availability have been major factors hindering the performance of edge user equipment (UE) and IoT devices in IoT edge networks. Besides, the edge base station (BS) with the computation server is allowed massive traffic and is vulnerable to disasters. The UAV is a promising technology that provides aerial base stations (ABSs) to assist the edge network in enhancing the ground network performance, extending network coverage, and offloading computationally intensive tasks from UEs or IoT devices. In this paper, we deploy a clustered multi-UAV to provide computing task offloading and resource allocation services to IoT devices. We propose a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL)-based approach to minimize the overall network computation cost while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) requirements of IoT devices or UEs in the IoT network. We formulate our problem as a natural extension of the Markov decision process (MDP) concerning stochastic game, to minimize the long-term computation cost in terms of energy and delay. We consider the stochastic time-varying UAVs’ channel strength and dynamic resource requests to obtain optimal resource allocation policies and computation offloading in aerial to ground (A2G) network infrastructure. Simulation results show that our proposed MADRL method reduces the average costs by 38.643%, and 55.621% and increases the reward by 58.289% and 85.289% compared with the different single agent DRL and heuristic schemes, respectively.

In this paper, we propose a content-aware cache resource slicing framework in software-defined information-centric virtualized wireless device-to-device (D2D) networks. In incorporating D2D communications, we attain the benefits of reuse and proximity gains, and by using the software defined network as a platform, we simplify the computational overhead. In this framework, we devise a cache allocation solution aimed at the latency-sensitive applications in the next-generation cellular networks. As the formulated problem is NP-hard, we evaluate four algorithms until we arrive at the most optimal solution. The heuristic solutions we provide are intuitive, yet efficient, and offer very low computational complexity.