Energy-efficient and network-aware offloading algorithm for mobile cloud computing

We propose a new system architecture for mobile cloud computing (MCC) that includes a middle layer sitting between mobile devices and their cloud infrastructure or clones. This middle layer is composed of cloudlets and is thus called a cloudlet layer. Cloudlets are deployed next to IEEE 802.11 access points and serve as a localized service point in close proximity to mobile devices to improve the performance of mobile cloud services. On top of this new architecture, an offloading algorithm is proposed with the main aim of deciding whether to offload to a clone or a cloudlet. The decision-making takes into consideration the energy consumption for task execution and the network status while satisfying certain task response time constraints. We also introduce a data caching mechanism at cloudlets to further improve the overall MCC performance. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed system architecture and offloading algorithm in terms of response time and energy consumption.