Optimization strategies for the selection of mobile edges in hybrid crowdsensing architectures

Communication infrastructures are rapidly evolving to support 5G enabling lower latency, high reliability, and scalability of the network and of the service provisioning. An important element of the 5G vision is Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), that leverages the availability of powerful and low-cost middle boxes, i.e., MEC nodes, statically deployed at suitable edges of the network to extend the centralized cloud backbone. At the same time, after almost a decade of research, Mobile CrowdSensing (MCS) has established the technology able to collect sensing data on the environment by using personal devices, usually smartphones, as powerful sensing-and-communication platforms. Even though, mutual benefits due to the integration of MEC and Mobile CrowdSensing (MCS) are still largely unexplored. In this paper, we address and analyze the potential of the synergic use of MCS and MEC by thoroughly assessing various strategies for the selection of both traditional Fixed MEC (FMEC) edges as well as human-enabled Mobile MEC (M2EC) edges to support the collection of mobile CrowdSensing data. Collected results quantitatively show the effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategies in elastically scaling the load at edge nodes according to runtime provisioning needs.