Energy-Efficient Mobile Edge Computing in NOMA-Based Wireless Networks: A Game Theory Approach

In this paper, we examine the potential benefits of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in achieving energy-efficient mobile edge computing (MEC) in wireless networks. To this end, we consider an uplink communication system where the edge users (EUEs) adopt NOMA protocol to offload their own tasks to the edge access points in the presence of cellular users (CUEs) performing regular uplink transmissions. We first characterize the energy consumption of our considered system. Then, taking the delay constraints of the CUEs and EUEs into consideration, we show how the energy consumption of the system can be optimized by judiciously determining the task offloading allocation, the subchannel allocation, as well as the power allocation. In order to solve the non-convex problem, an iterative Stackelberg-game-based scheme is proposed, in which the EUEs perform the task and power allocation as leaders, while the CUEs perform the subchannel allocation as followers. Numerical results show that, compared to exiting solutions, our proposed NOMA-based scheme can significantly reduce the energy consumption of the system, and the performance improvement becomes more profound when the delay constraints of the CUEs and EUEs become stringent.