Cui Zhang

Cui Zhang, Wenjun Zhang, Qiong Wu et al.

Federated Learning (FL) can protect the privacy of the vehicles in vehicle edge computing (VEC) to a certain extent through sharing the gradients of vehicles' local models instead of local data. The gradients of vehicles' local models are usually large for the vehicular artificial intelligence (AI) applications, thus transmitting such large gradients would cause large per-round latency. Gradient quantization has been proposed as one effective approach to reduce the per-round latency in FL enabled VEC through compressing gradients and reducing the number of bits, i.e., the quantization level, to transmit gradients. The selection of quantization level and thresholds determines the quantization error, which further affects the model accuracy and training time. To do so, the total training time and quantization error (QE) become two key metrics for the FL enabled VEC. It is critical to jointly optimize the total training time and QE for the FL enabled VEC. However, the time-varying channel condition causes more challenges to solve this problem. In this paper, we propose a distributed deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based quantization level allocation scheme to optimize the long-term reward in terms of the total training time and QE. Extensive simulations identify the optimal weighted factors between the total training time and QE, and demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Qiong Wu, Yu Zhao, Qiang Fan et al.

The vehicular edge computing (VEC) can cache contents in different RSUs at the network edge to support the real-time vehicular applications. In VEC, owing to the high-mobility characteristics of vehicles, it is necessary to cache the user data in advance and learn the most popular and interesting contents for vehicular users. Since user data usually contains privacy information, users are reluctant to share their data with others. To solve this problem, traditional federated learning (FL) needs to update the global model synchronously through aggregating all users' local models to protect users' privacy. However, vehicles may frequently drive out of the coverage area of the VEC before they achieve their local model trainings and thus the local models cannot be uploaded as expected, which would reduce the accuracy of the global model. In addition, the caching capacity of the local RSU is limited and the popular contents are diverse, thus the size of the predicted popular contents usually exceeds the cache capacity of the local RSU. Hence, the VEC should cache the predicted popular contents in different RSUs while considering the content transmission delay. In this paper, we consider the mobility of vehicles and propose a cooperative Caching scheme in the VEC based on Asynchronous Federated and deep Reinforcement learning (CAFR). We first consider the mobility of vehicles and propose an asynchronous FL algorithm to obtain an accurate global model, and then propose an algorithm to predict the popular contents based on the global model. In addition, we consider the mobility of vehicles and propose a deep reinforcement learning algorithm to obtain the optimal cooperative caching location for the predicted popular contents in order to optimize the content transmission delay. Extensive experimental results have demonstrated that the CAFR scheme outperforms other baseline caching schemes.

Cui Zhang, Wenjun Zhang, Qiong Wu et al.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) network can address the issue of limited computing resources and data processing capabilities of individual vehicles, but it also brings the risk of privacy leakage to vehicle users. Applying blockchain technology can establish secure data links within the IoV, solving the problems of insufficient computing resources for each vehicle and the security of data transmission over the network. However, with the development of the IoV, the amount of data interaction between multiple vehicles and between vehicles and base stations, roadside units, etc., is continuously increasing. There is a need to further reduce the interaction volume, and intelligent data compression is key to solving this problem. The VIB technique facilitates the training of encoding and decoding models, substantially diminishing the volume of data that needs to be transmitted. This paper introduces an innovative approach that integrates blockchain with VIB, referred to as BVIB, designed to lighten computational workloads and reinforce the security of the network. We first construct a new network framework by separating the encoding and decoding networks to address the computational burden issue, and then propose a new algorithm to enhance the security of IoV networks. We also discuss the impact of the data extraction rate on system latency to determine the most suitable data extraction rate. An experimental framework combining Python and C++ has been established to substantiate the efficacy of our BVIB approach. Comprehensive simulation studies indicate that the BVIB consistently excels in comparison to alternative foundational methodologies.

Maoxin Ji, Qiong Wu, Pingyi Fan et al.

This paper investigates a multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) joint base station-assisted Internet of Vehicles (IoV) task offloading system in dense urban environments. To minimize system delay and energy consumption under strict coupling constraints, the complex non-convex optimization problem is decoupled into a hierarchical execution framework. First, a sequential distributed optimization algorithm based on Second-Order Cone Programming (SOCP) is proposed to optimize the 3D flight trajectory of each UAV, ensuring adaptive network coverage. Second, a novel hybrid resource scheduling paradigm synergizing Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) and Large Language Models (LLMs) is developed. Within this framework, the DRL agent dictates the initial resource allocation, while the LLM acts as a semantic macro-scheduler to rectify long-tail allocation imbalances for failed and surplus tasks. Crucially, a reward decoupling mechanism is introduced to isolate DRL training from external LLM interventions, thereby ensuring policy convergence. Finally, the task offloading ratios are precisely determined via Linear Programming (LP) within an alternating optimization loop. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms traditional multi-agent reinforcement learning baselines in terms of task success rate and system efficiency.

Maoxin Ji, Qiong Wu, Pingyi Fan et al.

The Six-Dimensional Movable Antenna (6DMA) system has emerged as a promising technology to enhance wireless capacity by fully exploiting spatial degrees of freedom. However, applying 6DMA to high-mobility Internet of Vehicles (IoV) scenarios faces significant challenges, primarily due to the difficulty of acquiring instantaneous Channel State Information (CSI) and the risk of service interruptions caused by mechanical reconfiguration delays. To address these issues, this paper proposes a low-complexity, CSI-free single-step reconfiguration framework. First, we design a deterministic discrete position generation scheme based on a latitude-longitude grid with inherent topological structures. Leveraging graph theory, we explicitly model and theoretically derive the lower bounds of movement and time costs for antenna reconfiguration. Subsequently, utilizing the directional sparsity of 6DMA channels, we develop an adaptive optimization strategy that fuses offline environmental priors with online historical feedback. Furthermore, a periodic reconfiguration mechanism based on predicted cumulative vehicle distributions is introduced. By strictly restricting antenna adjustments to the first-order spatial neighborhood, the proposed single-step method effectively eliminates service interruptions. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms traditional fixed and global-search-based benchmarks in terms of uplink sum rate, while incurring negligible mechanical overhead and latency, thereby validating its feasibility and robustness in highly dynamic vehicular networks.

Cui Zhang, Xiao Xu, Qiong Wu et al.

In vehicle edge computing (VEC), asynchronous federated learning (AFL) is used, where the edge receives a local model and updates the global model, effectively reducing the global aggregation latency.Due to different amounts of local data,computing capabilities and locations of the vehicles, renewing the global model with same weight is inappropriate.The above factors will affect the local calculation time and upload time of the local model, and the vehicle may also be affected by Byzantine attacks, leading to the deterioration of the vehicle data. However, based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL), we can consider these factors comprehensively to eliminate vehicles with poor performance as much as possible and exclude vehicles that have suffered Byzantine attacks before AFL. At the same time, when aggregating AFL, we can focus on those vehicles with better performance to improve the accuracy and safety of the system. In this paper, we proposed a vehicle selection scheme based on DRL in VEC. In this scheme, vehicle s mobility, channel conditions with temporal variations, computational resources with temporal variations, different data amount, transmission channel status of vehicles as well as Byzantine attacks were taken into account.Simulation results show that the proposed scheme effectively improves the safety and accuracy of the global model.