Task Merging and Scheduling for Parallel Deep Learning Applications in Mobile Edge Computing

Mobile edge computing enables the execution of compute-intensive applications, e.g. deep learning applications, on the end devices with limited computation resources. However, the deep learning applications bring the performance bottleneck in mobile edge computing, due to the movements of a large amount of data incurred by the large number of layers and millions of weights. In this paper, the computing model for parallel deep learning applications in mobile edge computing is proposed, by considering the occupancy allocation of processors, cost of context switch, and multi-processors in edge server and remote cloud. The problem of minimizing the completion time for deep learning applications is formulated, and the NP-hardness of the problem is proved. To solve the problem, an integrated algorithm by merging and scheduling is proposed. Moreover, a real-world distributed platform is developed for evaluating the proposed algorithm. Experimental results show that, the completion time of deep learning application for the proposed algorithm is decreased by 63% and 75%, respectively, without extra control costs, compared with the existing algorithms.