Many studies on trust relationship establishment in Social Networks (SNs) have assumed that the trustworthiness of partners can be identified by participants through interaction. However, in practice, participants not only struggle to discern the trustworthiness of their counterparts but also find it difficult to effectively determine whether the messages they spread are Useful Messages (UMs) or Malicious Messages (MMs). Therefore, designing an efficient information propagation scheme that promotes UMs dissemination while blocking MMs remains a challenging issue in real-world SNs. In this paper, we propose an efficient Trust-based Distributed Incentive (TDI) scheme that aligns with actual SN practices. First, an effective Bidirectional Trust Identification (BTI) approach is proposed to verify the trustworthiness of messages and participants without assuming that interacting participants can evaluate each other's trustworthiness. In BTI, the trustworthiness of participants is evaluated based on their evaluations of trusted participants and reliable messages, while the trust of messages is verified through feedback from trusted participants, laying a foundation for trust information propagation. Then, a Trust-based Message Forwarding (TMF) mechanism is proposed to facilitate the dissemination of trusted messages while blocking the forwarding of low-trust messages. Finally, a Proactive Trust Evaluation (PTE) mechanism is introduced to accelerate and effectively obtain participants' reliable evaluations. Specifically, some UMs are disseminated as Probing Messages (PMs) to accurately evaluate the trustworthiness of participants based on whether they evaluate them truthfully. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the TDI scheme outperforms the existing main schemes in terms of accurately identifying message trust, increasing UMs dissemination, blocking the spread of MMs, and purifying SNs.

Edge computing brings computational resources to network edge, enabling mobile devices (MDs) to offload computing-intensive tasks to nearby edge servers. This significantly reduces the energy consumption of MDs and supports latency-sensitive applications. Meanwhile, the advancement of full-duplex (FD) cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology provides a promising opportunity to enhance end-edge communication efficiency, particularly in scenarios with coexisting uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) users. In this paper, we investigate the joint task offloading and resource scheduling problem in FD cell-free massive MIMO-enabled edge computing networks. The problem is formulated as a two-stage optimization framework. In the first stage, we develop a hybrid simulated annealing–particle swarm optimization (SA-PSO) algorithm, which incorporates the Metropolis criterion to enhance global search capability, aiming to maximize spectral efficiency. In the second stage, we propose a diffusion-augmented prioritized deep deterministic policy gradient (DAP-DDPG) algorithm. This algorithm integrates prioritized experience replay with diffusion models to minimize the total energy consumption of MDs while satisfying stringent latency constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with benchmark schemes, the proposed SA-PSO algorithm achieves a 13.4% to 146% improvement in spectral efficiency, while the DAP-DDPG algorithm reduces the energy consumption of MDs by 12.5% to 33.1%.

Vehicular edge computing (VEC) emerges as a promising paradigm for processing computing-intensive parallel vehicular tasks, where vehicular tasks can be offloaded to the edge nodes [e.g., roadside units (RSUs)] to seek less computing delay. Considering the impact of computation services on offloading efficiency, there are several works that jointly study the decision making of task offloading and service caching. However, the existing works fail to consider the time-varying service requests and ignore the time-slots correlation of the computation services. To bridge the gap, this work designs a service-aware parallel task offloading approach, which is the first work to jointly explore time-varying computation services and task offloading based on real-world vehicular trajectory data in VEC networks. Specifically, we first propose a computation service prediction algorithm using the real-world vehicular trajectory data. Guided by this, RSUs flexibly precache computation services. Then, we propose a learning-based parallel task offloading algorithm, which allows vehicles to make offloading decisions based on the history of the edge selections. Furthermore, we conduct simulations to validate the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm reduces task delay by 45%, 58%, and 55% compared to the algorithms without service-aware computation offloading under various CPU cycles, task numbers, and time slots.

Edge computing (EC) reduces task processing and content download delay by providing computation and caching resources directly to task offloading (TO) users and content request (CR) users. However, existing studies often focus exclusively on either TO users or CR users within EC networks, neglecting the interaction between these two groups. To address this gap, we investigate the offloading and caching decision-making in scenarios where TO and CR users coexist. Furthermore, we employ full-duplex (FD) technology to enhance spectral utilization for edge-end transmissions. Specifically, we jointly optimize offloading and caching in FD-enabled EC networks. To accomplish this, we decompose the formulated optimization problem into three sub-problems using the alternating optimization (AO) method. We then propose a three-subproblem alternating iterative delay minimization algorithm to effectively tackle the challenges of offloading and caching. Additionally, we analyze the convergence and complexity of our proposed algorithm. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach. The simulation results demonstrate that the delay reduction achieved by our algorithm is between 24.78% and 89.23% greater than that of comparative algorithms.

In the emerging cloud-edge-end computing networks, edge servers possess more constrained resources and face greater task offloading pressure than centralized cloud servers due to the surge in mobile applications and data. Concurrently, the presence of multiple edge service providers introduces additional challenges, including competition among servers, disordered resource pricing, and a lack of coordination in edge and cloud resource allocation. To address these issues, we propose a novel approach aimed at optimizing task deployment, resource pricing, and system coordination. First, we develop a competitiveness model to facilitate efficient edge-side task allocation while addressing the challenges of resource pricing under competitive conditions. Second, we design a transformer-based task prediction model to enhance the accuracy of resource demand forecasting, thereby enabling more effective edge-cloud resource allocation. To achieve these objectives, the system's interaction is structured into two distinct stages. This division simplifies the problem-solving process and ensures that the long-term goal of maximizing benefits for all stakeholders—edge service providers, cloud providers, and end-users—is achieved. The proposed solution not only improves task offloading efficiency and resource utilization, but also promotes fair competition and pricing transparency across the system.

Vehicular edge computing (VEC) provides an effective task offloading paradigm by pushing cloud resources to the vehicular network edges, e.g., road side units (RSUs). However, overloaded RSUs are likely to occur especially in urban aggregation areas, possibly leading to greatly compromised offloading performance. Inspired by this, this article explores this situation by introducing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to address the VEC overload problem. Specifically, we formulate a novel online UAV-assisted vehicular task offloading problem to minimize vehicular task delay under the long-term UAV energy constraint. To solve the formulated problem, we first decouple the long-term energy constraint based on the Lyapunov optimization technique. In this way, the problem can be solved in a real-time manner without requiring future information. Then, we construct a Markov chain based on Markov approximation optimization to find out the close-to-optimal UAV-assisted offloading strategies. Furthermore, we derive a mathematical analysis to rigorously demonstrate the offloading performance of the proposed algorithm. Additionally, the simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the baselines by significantly reducing the vehicular task delay constrained by the long-term UAV energy budget under various system parameters, such as the energy budget and computation workloads.

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) computation offloading has emerged as a promising solution to facilitate computing-intensive vehicular task processing, where task vehicles (i.e., TaVs) will be requested to offload computing-intensive tasks to server vehicles (i.e., SeVs) in order to keep task delay low. However, it is challenging for TaVs to obtain the optimal V2V computation offloading decisions (i.e., realizing the minimal task delay) due to the constraints, including: 1) incomplete offloading information; 2) degraded Quality-of-Service (QoS) of SeVs; and 3) privacy leakage risks. In this article, we develop a learning-based V2V computation offloading algorithm enhanced by SeV’s ability & trustfulness awareness to solve these problems. We emphasize that the proposed algorithm learns the offloading performance of candidate SeVs based on history offloading selections, without requiring the complete offloading information in advance. Additionally, both the QoS of SeVs and safe V2V computation offloading are enhanced in the proposed learning-based algorithm. Furthermore, we conduct extensive simulation experiments to validate the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm reduces the average task delay by 35% and 40%, and at the same time decreases the learning regret by 39% and 41%, compared to the algorithms without SeV’s ability and trustfulness awareness.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) and device-to-device (D2D) offloading are two promising paradigms in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In this article, we investigate task co-offloading, where computing-intensive industrial tasks can be offloaded to MEC servers via cellular links or nearby IIoT devices via D2D links. This co-offloading delivers small computation delay while avoiding network congestion. However, erratic movements, the selfish nature of devices and incomplete offloading information bring inherent challenges. Motivated by these, we propose a co-offloading framework, integrating migration cost and offloading willingness, in D2D-assisted MEC networks. Then, we investigate a learning-based task co-offloading algorithm, with the goal of minimal system cost (i.e., task delay and migration cost). The proposed algorithm enables IIoT devices to observe and learn the system cost from candidate edge nodes, thereby selecting the optimal edge node without requiring complete offloading information. Furthermore, we conduct simulations to verify the proposed co-offloading algorithm.

In enterprise management systems (EMS), augmented Intelligence of Things (AIoT) devices generate delay-sensitive and energy-intensive tasks for learning analytics, articulate clarifications, and immersive experiences. To guarantee effective task processing, in this work, we present a cloud-assisted fog computing framework with task offloading and service caching. In the framework, tasks make offloading decisions to determine local processing, fog processing, and cloud processing with the goal of minimal task delay and energy consumption, conditioned on dynamic service caching. To this end, we first propose a distributed task offloading algorithm based on noncooperative game theory. Then, we adopt the 0–1 knapsack method to realize dynamic service caching. At last, we adjust the offloading decisions for the tasks offloaded to the fog server but without caching service support. In addition, we conduct extensive experiments and the results validate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms.

We consider the problem of task offloading and resource allocation in mobile edge computing (MEC). To maintain satisfactory quality of experience (QoE) of end-users, mobile devices (MDs) may offload their tasks to edge servers based on the allocated computation (e.g., CPU/GPU cycles and storage) and wireless resources (e.g., bandwidth). However, these resources could not be effectively utilized unless an encouraging resource allocation scheme can be proposed. What’s worse, task offloading incurs additional MEC energy consumption, which inevitably violate the long-term MEC energy budget. Considering these two challenges, we propose an online joint offloading and resource allocation (JORA) framework under the long-term MEC energy constraint, aiming at guaranteeing the end-users’ QoE. To achieve this, we leverage Lyapunov optimization to exploit the optimality of the long-term QoE maximization problem. By constructing an energy deficit queue to guide energy consumption, the problem can be solved in a real-time manner. On this basis, we propose online JORA methods in both centralized and distributed manners. Furthermore, we prove that our proposed methods enable the achievement of the close-to-optimal performance while satisfying the long-term MEC energy constraint. In addition, we conduct extensive simulations and the results show superiority in performance over other methods.

We consider the problem of dependent task offloading in edge computing with unknown system-side information (e.g., edge transmission rate and computation resources). In this problem, tasks have complicated dependency relationships and have no prior knowledge of system-side information to assist offloading decision-making. Although existing learning-based approaches can help to address unknown system-side information, the impact of inherent task dependency on such approaches has not been formally explored. To bridge the gap, we first use a breadth-first-search (BFS) method to decouple task dependency, and then leverage the Lyapunov optimization technique to transfer the long-term offloading problem to an online optimization problem. Furthermore, we employ the multi-armed bandit (MAB) theory to develop theonlinelearning-baseddependenttaskoffloading algorithm, called OL-DTO. The algorithm can address the unknown system-side information and is augmented with task dependency awareness. We present a rigorous theoretical analysis to evaluate the performance of this algorithm in terms of application delay and UD energy consumption. Our extensive experimental results demonstrate that the OL-DTO algorithm significantly reduces application delay while satisfying the long-term energy budget constraint of the UD.

Mobile-edge computing (MEC) has been witnessed as a promising solution for the vehicular task offloading. Due to the limited computing resource of individual MEC servers, it faces challenges when higher requirements are put forward for timely task processing of a large amount of computations in the emerging vehicular applications. In this article, we strive to realize the efficient vehicular task offloading via heat-aware MEC cooperation from the game theory perspective. Here, the heat indicates the vehicle density and is tightly related to the requests of vehicle users when they drive through the hot zones. Specifically, a deep learning-based prediction method is proposed, capturing the dynamic time-varying heat value of the hot zones based on the analysis of the real-world private car trajectory data. To identify the role of MEC in the cooperation, we take the time-delay constraint into consideration for the task offloading. To realize MEC grouping for task offloading in MEC cooperation, we formulate the MEC grouping as a utility maximization problem via designing a noncooperative game-theoretic strategy selection based on regret-matching. Furthermore, we derive the correlated equilibrium and prove that the fast convergence can be achieved. Extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed vehicular task offloading approach under various system parameters, such as computation workload, time slots, and MEC servers number. The proposed method outperforms the existing methods, which is able to significantly reduce the task complete delay, and in the meantime enhance the MEC energy efficiency with end users' quality-of-experience guaranteed.