Decentralized Algorithms for Resource Allocation in Mobile Cloud Computing Systems

Abstract: The rapid increase in the number of mobile devices has been followed by an increase in the capabilities of mobile devices, such as the computational power, memory and battery capacity. Yet, the computational resources of individual mobile devices are still insufficient for various delay sensitive and computationally intensive applications. These emerging applications could be supported by mobile cloud computing, which allows using external computational resources. Mobile cloud computing does not only improve the users’ perceived performance of mobile applications, but it also may reduce the energy consumption of mobile devices, and thus it may extend their battery life. However, the overall performance of mobile cloud computing systems is determined by the efficiency of allocating communication and computational resources. The work in this thesis proposes decentralized algorithms for allocating these two resources in mobile cloud computing systems. In the first part of the thesis, we consider the resource allocation problem in a mobile cloud computing system that allows mobile users to use cloud computational resources and the resources of each other. We consider that each mobile device aims at minimizing its perceived response time, and we develop a game theoretical model of the problem. Based on the game theoretical model, we propose an efficient decentralized algorithm that relies on average system parameters, and we show that the proposed algorithm could be a promising solution for coordinating multiple mobile devices. In the second part of the thesis, we consider the resource allocation problem in a mobile cloud computing system that consists of multiple wireless links and a cloud server. We model the problem as a strategic game, in which each mobile device aims at minimizing a combination of its response time and energy consumption for performing the computation. We prove the existence of equilibrium allocations of mobile cloud resources, and we use game theoretical tools for designing polynomial time decentralized algorithms with a bounded approximation ratio. We then consider the problem of allocating communication and computational resources over time slots, and we show that equilibrium allocations still exist. Furthermore, we analyze the structure of equilibrium allocations, and we show that the proposed decentralized algorithm for computing equilibria achieves good system performance. By providing constructive equilibrium existence proofs, the results in this thesis provide low complexity decentralized algorithms for allocating mobile cloud resources for various mobile cloud computing architectures.