DRL-Assisted Delay Optimized Task Offloading in Automotive-Industry 5.0 based VECNs

The rapid growth of Automotive-Industry 5.0 and its emergence with beyond fifth-generation (B5G) communications, is making vehicular edge computing networks (VECNs) increasingly complex. The latency constraints of modern automotive applications make it difficult to run complex applications on vehicle on-board units (OBUs). While multi-access edge computing (MEC) can facilitate task offloading to execute these applications, it is still a challenge to access them promptly and optimally. Traditional algorithms struggle to guarantee accuracy in such dynamic environment, but deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods offer improved accuracy, robustness, and real-time decision-making capabilities. In this paper, we propose a DRL-based mobility, contact, and load aware cooperative task offloading (DCTO) scheme. DCTO is designed for both cellular and mmWave radio access technologies (RATs), and both binary and partial offloading mechanisms. DCTO targets delay minimization by opportunistically switching RATs and offloading mechanisms. We consider relative efficacy and neutrality factors as key performance indicators and use them to derive the DRL agent’s reward function. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that the DCTO scheme exhibits a substantial enhancement in task success rate, with an increase from 2.61% to 21.34%. It also improves the efficacy factor from 1.38 to 3.52 and reduces the neutrality factor from 4.99 to 0.76. Furthermore, the average task processing time is reduced by a range of 3.77% to 24.15%. Additionally, the DCTO scheme outperforms the other evaluated schemes in terms of reward and TFPS ratio.