Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms

Edge computing has emerged as a promising solution for delivering services that demand low latency, high bandwidth, and stringent privacy requirements in numerous data- and compute-intensive applications, such as those in Smart Cities. Heterogeneity in edge computing resources and diverse applicatio...

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Main Authors: Aqeel H. Kazmi, Alessandro Staffolani, Tianhao Zhang, Christian Cabrera, Siobhan Clarke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10810420/
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author Aqeel H. Kazmi
Alessandro Staffolani
Tianhao Zhang
Christian Cabrera
Siobhan Clarke
author_facet Aqeel H. Kazmi
Alessandro Staffolani
Tianhao Zhang
Christian Cabrera
Siobhan Clarke
author_sort Aqeel H. Kazmi
collection DOAJ
description Edge computing has emerged as a promising solution for delivering services that demand low latency, high bandwidth, and stringent privacy requirements in numerous data- and compute-intensive applications, such as those in Smart Cities. Heterogeneity in edge computing resources and diverse application requirements demand adaptive optimization techniques, such as service placement, to conform to changing conditions. A service placement model must optimize the selection of edge nodes for deploying and executing services, thereby improving application QoS and maximizing resource utilization. Numerous optimization techniques for adaptive service placement problem have been proposed in the recent past. However, in most cases, the results have been evaluated in limited scenarios. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative study evaluating representative optimization algorithms applied to the problem of dynamic service placement across various application scenarios. The study covers nature-inspired approaches, including both meta-heuristics and reinforcement learning. Our experimental findings offer valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the selected nature-inspired algorithms for service placement optimization, evaluated for applications with different QoS requirements. In our analysis, the Genetic Algorithm shows superior performance in achieving lower average distance and the average number of servers selected. Particle Swarm Optimization excels in minimizing average waiting time and placement decision time. The Artificial Bee Colony maintains low average latency, whereas the RL Proximal Policy Optimization demonstrates superior performance in terms of balancing the utilization of network resources.
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spelling doaj-art-bb002a143bb74a55acdd13e37858552b2025-01-11T00:01:36ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-01132653267010.1109/ACCESS.2024.352070110810420Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired AlgorithmsAqeel H. Kazmi0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8365-9892Alessandro Staffolani1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0886-2548Tianhao Zhang2https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0932-0278Christian Cabrera3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6954-6859Siobhan Clarke4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5721-9976School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, IrelandDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, ItalySchool of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, IrelandDepartment of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, IrelandEdge computing has emerged as a promising solution for delivering services that demand low latency, high bandwidth, and stringent privacy requirements in numerous data- and compute-intensive applications, such as those in Smart Cities. Heterogeneity in edge computing resources and diverse application requirements demand adaptive optimization techniques, such as service placement, to conform to changing conditions. A service placement model must optimize the selection of edge nodes for deploying and executing services, thereby improving application QoS and maximizing resource utilization. Numerous optimization techniques for adaptive service placement problem have been proposed in the recent past. However, in most cases, the results have been evaluated in limited scenarios. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative study evaluating representative optimization algorithms applied to the problem of dynamic service placement across various application scenarios. The study covers nature-inspired approaches, including both meta-heuristics and reinforcement learning. Our experimental findings offer valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the selected nature-inspired algorithms for service placement optimization, evaluated for applications with different QoS requirements. In our analysis, the Genetic Algorithm shows superior performance in achieving lower average distance and the average number of servers selected. Particle Swarm Optimization excels in minimizing average waiting time and placement decision time. The Artificial Bee Colony maintains low average latency, whereas the RL Proximal Policy Optimization demonstrates superior performance in terms of balancing the utilization of network resources.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10810420/Edge computingdynamic service placementmulti-objective optimizationmeta-heuristicsnature-inspired algorithmsservice offloading
spellingShingle Aqeel H. Kazmi
Alessandro Staffolani
Tianhao Zhang
Christian Cabrera
Siobhan Clarke
Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
IEEE Access
Edge computing
dynamic service placement
multi-objective optimization
meta-heuristics
nature-inspired algorithms
service offloading
title Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
title_full Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
title_fullStr Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
title_short Dynamic Service Placement in Edge Computing: A Comparative Evaluation of Nature-Inspired Algorithms
title_sort dynamic service placement in edge computing a comparative evaluation of nature inspired algorithms
topic Edge computing
dynamic service placement
multi-objective optimization
meta-heuristics
nature-inspired algorithms
service offloading
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10810420/
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