Asymptotic Optimal Edge Resource Allocation for Video Streaming via User Preference Prediction

Mobile edge computing extends computing and storage resources to the proximity of mobile users, facilitating a number of innovative mobile applications. Particularly, video streaming is the most prevailing one that consumes substantial edge resources. In this paper, we investigate the multi-dimensional resource allocation for video service provisioning, with the objective of ensuring satisfied streaming experience at high resource utilization. Considering the diversified and constantly changing user preferences on the quality of video contents, the edge resource allocation process is modeled as a long-term utility maximization problem. To address this problem, we propose an online learning algorithm that actively estimates user preferences according to regression analysis on user feedback. This algorithm requires no training phase, and hence is adaptive to dynamic user interests and available edge resources. Both theoretical analysis and numerical results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed algorithm asymptotically approaches the hindsight optimal resource allocation strategy.