Edge Computing (EC) allows users to access computing resources at the network frontier, which paves the way for deploying delay-sensitive applications such as Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR). Under the EC paradigm, MAR users connect to the EC server, open sessions and send continuously frames to be processed. The EC server sends back virtual information to enhance the human perception of the world by merging it with the real environment. Resource allocation arises as a critical challenge when several MAR Service Providers (SPs) compete for limited resources at the edge of the network. In this paper, we consider EC in a multi-tenant environment where the resource owner, i.e., the Network Operator (NO), virtualizes the resources and lets SPs run their services using the allocated slice of resources. Indeed, for MAR applications, we focus on two specific resources: CPU and RAM, deployed in some edge node, e.g., a central office. We study the decision of the NO about how to partition these resources among several SPs. We model the arrival and service dynamics of users belonging to different SPs using Erlang queuing model and show that under perfect information, the interaction between the NO and SPs can be formulated as a sub-modular maximization problem under multiple Knapsack constraints. To solve the problem, we use an approximation algorithm, guaranteeing a bounded gap with respect to the optimal theoretical solution. Our numerical results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms baseline proportional allocation in terms of the number of sessions accommodated at the edge for each SP.

翻译：边缘计算（EC）允许用户在网络边缘访问计算资源，为部署移动增强现实（MAR）等延迟敏感型应用铺平了道路。在EC范式下，MAR用户连接到EC服务器，打开会话并持续发送待处理帧。EC服务器通过将虚拟信息与真实环境融合，回传增强人类对世界感知的信息。当多个MAR服务提供商（SP）竞争边缘有限资源时，资源分配成为一个关键挑战。本文考虑多租户环境下的边缘计算，其中资源所有者（即网络运营商NO）对资源进行虚拟化，并允许SP使用所分配的切片资源运行其服务。针对MAR应用，我们重点关注两项具体资源：CPU和RAM，它们部署在某边缘节点（如中心局）中。我们研究NO如何决定将这些资源在多个SP间进行划分。利用厄朗排队模型对属于不同SP的用户到达与服务动态进行建模，证明在完美信息下，NO与SP间的交互可表述为多背包约束下的子模最大化问题。为解决该问题，我们使用近似算法，保证与理论最优解之间存在有界间隙。数值实验表明，在边缘为每个SP容纳的会话数量方面，所提算法优于基线比例分配方案。