Energy-Latency Trade-off for Multiuser Wireless Computation Offloading

This paper addresses the trade-off between latency and energy consumption in wireless application offloading in a multiuser set-up. The advantages of carrying out offloading versus executing an application locally at the user terminal depend on multiple parameters. This paper evaluates the impact that the transmission rate and the load of the system have on the quality of service experienced by the users as well as on the energy saving that the users get from doing offloading. Based on this evaluation, the paper proposes a method to select the uplink data rate that minimizes the latency experienced by the user given a target energy saving with respect to the case of no offloading. The result depends on the channels conditions, the system load, the application parameters, and the energy consumption features of the terminal. The method is presented firstly for flat fading channels and secondly for non-flat fading channels.