Drone-assisted Edge Computing: a game-theoretical approach

Edge computing is an evolution of cloud computing, which brings application hosting from centralized data-centers down to the network edge, closer to mobile users and IoT devices. In this paper we focus on scenarios where edge computing is implemented by way of drones which behave as mobile edge servers and provide storage and processing services to offload data and maintain ubiquitous connectivity. In this scenario, Servers (i.e., drones) behave as sellers of network functions and Users (i.e. IoT devices) act as buyers, and interact with each other. To model these interactions, in this paper we exploit a two-stage Stackelberg game; we also show that a unique equilibrium and convergence point for the game exists, which can be reached by way of a simple reinforcement learning algorithm.