Network slicing is a promising approach supporting various Internet of Everything applications with diverse and differential requirements. To implement flexible and efficient network slices, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled mobile edge computing (MEC) is deployed to leverage aerial and ground segments, which provides multi-dimensional resources involving various hardware devices and facilities (e.g., UAVs, edge servers, and network devices). Such a complex and hierarchical structure requires an efficient framework to orchestrate and control network slices while considering specific and unique characteristics of the UAVs deployed in the system. In this work, we propose a new systematic architecture named slicing-based software-defined MEC in the air, where virtual resource blocks provided by UAVs and edge devices are ubiquitously integrated into network slices to offer customized UAV-enabled MEC services by software-defined technologies. Then we identify three slicing patterns implemented by organized embeddings of UAVs, which are full slicing, partial slicing, and separated slicing patterns. Based on the proposed slicing-based software-defined scheme, two potential application scenarios and some open issues are discussed. In particular, we develop a Lyapunov optimization-based offloading algorithm for the efficient selection of resource slices. Finally, some simulation results are presented to depict the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

中文翻译：

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基于切片的软件定义空中移动边缘计算


网络切片是一种有前途的方法，支持具有不同需求的各种物联网应用。为了实现灵活高效的网络切片，部署支持无人机（UAV）的移动边缘计算（MEC）以利用空中和地面部分，提供涉及各种硬件设备和设施（例如无人机、边缘服务器）的多维资源和网络设备）。这种复杂的分层结构需要一个高效的框架来编排和控制网络切片，同时考虑系统中部署的无人机的具体和独特的特性。在这项工作中，我们提出了一种新的系统架构，名为基于切片的软件定义空中MEC，其中无人机和边缘设备提供的虚拟资源块普遍集成到网络切片中，通过软件定义提供定制的无人机支持的MEC服务。技术。然后，我们确定了通过无人机有组织嵌入实现的三种切片模式，即完全切片、部分切片和分离切片模式。基于所提出的基于切片的软件定义方案，讨论了两个潜在的应用场景和一些悬而未决的问题。特别是，我们开发了一种基于李雅普诺夫优化的卸载算法，用于有效选择资源切片。最后，给出了一些仿真结果来说明所提出方案的有效性。