Edge Information Hub: Orchestrating Satellites, UAVs, MEC, Sensing and Communications for 6G Closed-Loop Controls

Lei, Chengleyang; Feng, Wei; Wei, Peng; Chen, Yunfei; Mao, Shiwen; Ge, Ning

Abstract

An increasing number of field robots would be used for mission-critical tasks in remote or post-disaster areas. Due to the limited individual abilities, these robots usually require an edge information hub (EIH), with not only communication but also sensing and computing functions. Such EIH could be deployed on a flexibly-dispatched unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Different from traditional aerial base stations or mobile edge computing (MEC), the EIH would direct the operations of robots via sensing-communication-computing-control (SC 3 ) closed-loop orchestration. This paper aims to optimize the closed-loop control performance of multiple SC 3 loops, with constraints on satellite-backhaul rate, computing capability, and on-board energy. Specifically, the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control cost is used to measure the closed-loop utility, and a sum LQR cost minimization problem is formulated to jointly optimize the splitting of sensor data and allocation of communication and computing resources. We first derive the optimal splitting ratio of sensor data, and then recast the problem to a more tractable form. An iterative algorithm is finally proposed to provide a sub-optimal solution. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm. We also uncover the influence of SC 3 parameters on closed-loop controls, highlighting more systematic understanding.

Citation

Lei, C., Feng, W., Wei, P., Chen, Y., Mao, S., & Ge, N. (online). Edge Information Hub: Orchestrating Satellites, UAVs, MEC, Sensing and Communications for 6G Closed-Loop Controls. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, https://doi.org/10.1109/jsac.2024.3460053

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 13, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 11, 2024
• Journal: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
• Print ISSN: 0733-8716
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/jsac.2024.3460053
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3091457