DRL-Based AP Switch On/Off Scheme for Cell-Free Massive MIMO MEC Networks

In this paper, we consider a cell-free massive multiple-intput multiple-output (MIMO)-enabled mobile edge computing (MEC) network where AP switch on/off method is adopted for energy saving. We formulate a system-wise energy minimization problem, which jointly optimizes on/off mode of APs, uplink transmit power, and offloading ratio. The problem is non-convex and thus hard to solve using optimization methods. To solve the problem, we first reformulate it as a Markov decision process (MDP) and then propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based scheme. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme can reduce the energy consumption significantly.