Efficient Request Scheduling in Cross-Regional Edge Collaboration via Digital Twin Networks

In cloud computing, user requests sent to centralized servers often encounter delay due to network unpredictability, impacting the Quality of Service (QoS) for time-sensitive applications. We propose edge collaboration, utilizing the coordination of edge nodes within regions to handle requests more efficiently and reduce latency. However, edge nodes across different regions struggle with lack of immediate data on resources cached elsewhere, complicating inter-regional request scheduling. To address it, we introduce a federated digital twin model that creates a network linking edge nodes to reflect and update resource statuses in real time. Additionally, we refine the Dijkstra algorithm to optimize routing to the nearest edge nodes based on current network conditions, thereby minimizing delay. Our analyses show that our method significantly lowers delay, enhancing effectiveness over baseline methods.