Disguiser: A Privacy-Preserving Scheme for Efficient Edge User Allocation

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) has garnered increasing attention from users due to low web service latency. Edge servers deployed near base stations have limited resources and can only serve users within their coverage areas. Therefore, efficiently allocating users to the appropriate edge servers is crucial for significantly enhancing system performance. Traditional edge user allocation (EUA) strategies often rely on precise user location, leading to significant privacy leakage risks and weakening users' trust. To tackle this challenge, this paper presents Disguiser, a novel privacy-preserving scheme designed to achieve efficient edge user allocation while safeguarding user location privacy. Disguiser employs a Laplace noise-based location obfuscation mechanism to ensure users' privacy. To resolve the user allocation problem after location obfuscation, which involves balancing real-time performance and accuracy, we design a two-stage user allocation algorithm, TEUA, consisting of the LR-EUA initial allocation algorithm and the MR-EUA reallocation algorithm. First, a novel EUA algorithm, LR-EUA, is integrated into Disguiser, innovatively combining linear relaxation with a greedy approach. Additionally, Disguiser further minimizes resource wastage in MEC systems caused by location obfuscation by employing the MR-EUA algorithm at base stations. Experimental results show that Disguiser effectively balances privacy protection with system performance, substantially outperforming existing state-of-the-art methods.