Stochastic Cumulative DNN Inference With RL-Aided Adaptive IoT Device-Edge Collaboration

The advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing enable edge intelligence to support pervasive intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) applications in the future wireless networks. We focus on deep neural network (DNN)-based classification tasks, and investigate how to improve the confidence level and delay performance of DNN inference via device-edge collaboration. We first develop a stochastic cumulative DNN inference scheme that aggregates multiple random DNN inference results and generates a cumulative DNN inference result with improved confidence level. Then, based on a computation-efficient DNN model deployment strategy with shared computation between a locally deployed fast DNN model and a full DNN model partitioned between the device and edge, a closed-loop adaptive device-edge collaboration scheme is developed to support cumulative DNN inference for multiple devices. We adaptively determine how to offload DNN inference computation to the edge and how to allocate transmission and edge-computing resources among multiple devices, for Quality-of-Service (QoS) satisfaction in terms of both confidence level and inference delay with resource and energy efficiency. A reinforcement learning (RL) approach is used for adaptive offloading decision, which relies on a resource allocation solution for reward calculation. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the adaptive device-edge collaboration scheme for cumulative DNN inference, in terms of confidence level improvement, delay violation minimization, network resource efficiency, and device energy efficiency.