Edge-Based Video Stream Generation for Multi-Party Mobile Augmented Reality

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Abstract
With the popularity of mobile devices and the continuous advancement of mobile network technology, running online augmented reality (AR) on lightweight mobile devices is much more desirable than on heavy and expensive head-mounted devices that are difficult to satisfy users. Mobile edge computing can assist in supporting AR applications running on mobile devices, which copes with compute-intensive and delay-sensitive requirements. However, subject to the limited and heterogeneous edge resources, offloading tasks to edge devices is not easy, especially if the application requires multi-party interaction. It is challenging to develop a credible task placement scheme that satisfies user experience with flexible use of edge resources. This article focus on the task offloading placement problem for AR overlay rendering in multi-party mobile augmented reality system. We first present our observations about performance bottlenecks of edge devices and explain the necessity of splitting the AR overlay rendering pipeline. We then formulate a joint optimization problem of task placement decisions, aiming to maximize the user experience of quality and minimize the service cost. We develop a novel decision approach based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to address this complex problem. Finally, we verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method through extensive evaluation experiments.
Funding Information
  • National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB3102302)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (61902257, 62272317)
  • Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (2021A1515012633)
  • Shenzhen Science and Technology (JCYJ20220531103402006, RCYX20200714114645048)