An Intelligent and Latency Efficient Method for IoT-MEC Task Offloading

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) has emerged as a viable means to improve processing efficiency by reducing distance between computation and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, results in lower latency and energy expenditure. Although MEC appears to be a good candidate for improving task distribution efficiency, there remain issues surrounding task offloading, high computational latencies, and the heterogeneity of IoT devices that make centralized resource allocation seamless. This research presents an improved task offloading paradigm, with an emphasis on reducing latency and improving efficiency in an IoT-MEC context. Incoming tasks are classified into four categories based on levels of complexity. Type 1 tasks can be executed on the IoT device, while Type 4 task are fully offloaded into a cloud. Type 2 and Type 3 tasks utilize a parallel execution approach, where tasks are partially executed on the IoT device and partially satisfies the MEC server. The model in this study incorporates matching and queuing theory to improve task allocation from the device to the server. An additional branch based heuristic method is also introduced to further reduce task processing efficiency. Algorithm used was implemented using Python libraries through simulations and real-world cases. Comparative analysis with baseline task offloading methods demonstrates substantial performance improvements, achieving reductions in task computation latency of 40%-70%. These results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is efficient and effective in optimizing the overall execution of task in MEC-enabled IoT networks.