A Computing Offloading Game for Mobile Devices and Edge Cloud Servers

Computing offloading of mobile devices (MDs) through cloud is a greatly effective way to solve the problem of local resource constraints. However, cloud servers are usually located far away from MDs leading to a long response time. To this end, edge cloud servers (ECSs) provide a shorter response time due to being closer to MDs. In this paper, we propose a computing offloading game for MDs and ECSs. We prove the existence of a Stackelberg equilibrium in the game. In addition, we propose two algorithms, F-SGA and C-SGA, for delay-sensitive and compute-intensive applications, respectively. Moreover, the response time is reduced by F-SGA, which makes decisions quickly. An optimal decision is obtained by C-SGA, which achieves the equilibrium. Both algorithms above proposed can adjust the computing resource and utility of system users according to parameters control in computing offloading. The simulation results show that the game significantly saves the computing resources and response time of both the MD and the ECSs during the computing offloading process.