Fundamental design aspects of UAV-enabled MEC systems: A review on models, challenges, and future opportunities

Abstract

The huge prospects of the internet of things (IoT) have led to an ever-growing demand for computing power by IoT users to enable various applications. Multi-access edge computing (MEC) research and development has rapidly gained attention during the last decade. The ability to deploy edge servers at different points across a content delivery network that can offer communication and computing services close to mobile user devices is one of the main factors driving the evolution of MEC. Furthermore, MEC has been considered a potentially transformational approach for fifth-generation (5 G) and beyond 5 G (B5G) networks, as well as a potential improvement to conventional cloud computing. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used as effective aerial platforms to offer reliable and ubiquitous connections in wireless communication networks due to their distinctive qualities, such as high cruising altitude, on-demand deployment, and three-dimensional (3D) maneuverability. The number of research studies published in this area has dramatically increased due to the growing interest in UAV-enabled MEC. Although UAV-enabled MEC systems have been well studied, the existing models are becoming increasingly heterogeneous and scattered without harmony. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the literature on UAV-enabled MEC systems with a special focus on the system modeling, and optimization techniques for five identified domains, such as energy efficiency, resource allocation, trajectory control, latency, and security. For each domain, we have highlighted the recent advances, critical findings, and the advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, the identified proposed techniques were analyzed and discussed, with emphasize on the constraints and performance metrics. We also discuss a general system model for each highlighted domain. Moreover, the lessons are also derived from the study on system optimization and system modeling techniques identified in this paper. Then we discuss open issues related to UAV-enabled MEC systems in each highlighted domain, including problem formulation and optimization techniques. Finally, this paper lay out directions for future research to solve the aforementioned problems associated with UAV-enabled MEC systems.