IFresher: Information Freshening for Mobile Augmented Reality With Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Edge Computing

In this paper, we propose the IFresher framework to improve the timeliness of multi-agent mobile augmented reality (MAR) systems. Existing works have made strides in accuracy-latency trade-offs, but fail to directly address real-time task responsiveness and multi-agent contention challenges. To bridge this gap, we introduce the concept of the age of analytics information (AoAI), which quantifies the combined impact of video analytics (VA) accuracy, transmission delay, and computational efficiency. By deriving a closed-form expression for AoAI, IFresher establishes a central control mechanism that jointly optimizes bandwidth allocation and video configuration to minimize AoAI while ensuring accuracy. Due to the mixed-integer nonlinear characteristics of the problem and the fact that each agent only has local observations, the problem is reformulated into a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process (Dec-POMDP). We propose a multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithm, named convex-embedded transformer QMIX (CTQMIX), using the centralized training and decentralized execution (CTDE) framework for agent collaboration. Specifically, the convex optimization ensures optimal bandwidth distribution, and the transformer captures temporal dependencies between observations and actions across time steps to improve decision-making in dynamic environments. Evaluations with real-world experiments show that the CTQMIX outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms.