Sensing and Storing Less: A MARL-Based Solution for Energy Saving in Edge Internet of Things

As the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices continuously grows and application scenarios constantly enrich, the volume of sensor data experiences an explosive increase. However, substantial data demands considerable energy during computation and transmission. Redundant deployment or mobile assistance is essential to cover the target area reliably with fault-prone sensors. Consequently, the “butterfly effect” may appear during the IoT operation, since unreasonable data overlap could result in many duplicate data. To this end, we proposeSenses, a novel online energy saving solution for Edge-IoT networks, with the insight of sensing and storing less at the network edge by adopting Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL). Senses achieves data de-duplication by dynamically adjusting sensor coverage at the sensor level. For exceptional cases where sensor coverage cannot be altered, Senses conducts data partitioning and eliminates redundant data at the controller level. Furthermore, at the global level, considering the heterogeneity of IoT devices, Senses balances the operational duration among the devices to prolong the overall operational duration of Edge-IoT networks. We evaluate the performance of Senses through testbed experiments and simulations. The results show that Senses saves 11.37% of energy consumption on control devices and prolongs 20% overall operational duration of the Edge-IoT network.