Online Optimization of Offloading Video Analytics Tasks to Multiple Edges for Accuracy Maximization

Real-time video analytics (VA) presents challenges due to its computational intensity and latency sensitivity, especially when processed on mobile devices with limited local resources. We propose to offload VA tasks to edge servers with diverse computational capabilities. We present a "detect + track" approach with on-device object tracking and edge-assisted object detection. We formulate a long-term nonlinear integer programming to maximize the overall accuracy within detection frequency and latency constraints. We then design a queue-based online optimization algorithm to solve it: relax the original problem from the integer domain to the real domain, then employ a queue-based adaptation and randomized rounding strategy. Via rigorous proof, both dynamic regret regarding detection accuracy and the real-time requirement are ensured. Evaluation results also demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.