Multi-Agent Systems for Autonomous IoT Network Management Using Distributed Reinforcement Learning

The ever-growing complexity of IoT networks ignited by their wide scale adoption in applications such as smart cities, the industrial automation, and health care, compelled to develop sophisticated yet resource efficient and scalable network management solution. Centralized systems are traditional in architecture, which leads to higher latency and bottlenecks, while decentralized systems can distribute workloads however the lack of adaptability to real time, along with the difficulty of extracting maximum resource usage, are limitations. In recent years, reinforcement learning (RL) based approaches have taken shape as a promising alternative to facilitate the automated learning and optimisation of task management. However, there are two challenges for existing RL based methods: slow convergence, inefficient priority assignment of tasks, and poor coordination amongst agents in the case of dynamic, large scale IoT environment. To solve these challenges, in this research we propose a distributed reinforcement learning based multi agent framework for managing IoT network. The framework also integrates a task prioritization mechanism to dynamically choose an optimal task allocation solution. Further validation was performed in a simulated IoT environment where real world inspired datasets were used. The proposed framework demonstrated 30% more task throughput than centralized, 25% less latency than decentralized, and 40% more energy efficiency than current RL based systems. The system was further validated using advanced visualizations such as anomaly detection maps and resource allocation efficiency graphs, demonstrating its capacity to manage dynamic load of tasks and resource allocation. The proposed framework addresses the critical limitations of current methods, through scalable, adaptive, and energy efficient framework for managing IoT network, and accordingly helps advancing the intelligent and autonomous IoT systems.