Latency Minimization of Multi-Layer Aerial Networks for Maritime Collaborative Mobile Edge Computing

In this paper, a multi-layer aerial network model consisting of Maritime Terminals (MTs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and High Altitude Platform (HAP) is constructed. UAVs and HAP act as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) servers, satisfying MTs with varying computation needs. Specifically, an optimization scheme for joint MT offloading decision, partial offloading and communication resource allocation is proposed with the objective of minimizing the total communication and computation latency in the network. Further, the problem is decomposed into two subproblems with respect to offloading decision optimization and resource allocation optimization, which are solved by using coalition game approach and convex optimization approach, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate significant reductions in total system latency compared to benchmarks.