Energy-Aware MPTCP Scheduling in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks Using Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Techniques

Abstract

This paper proposes an energy-efficient scheduling scheme for multi-path TCP (MPTCP) in heterogeneous wireless networks, aiming to minimize energy consumption while ensuring low latency and high throughput. Each MPTCP sub-flow is controlled by an agent that cooperates with other agents using the Multi-Agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (MADDPG) algorithm. This approach enables the agents to learn decentralized policies through centralized training and decentralized execution. The scheduling problem is modeled as a multi-agent decision-making task. The proposed energy-efficient scheduling scheme, referred to as EE-MADDPG, demonstrates significant energy savings while maintaining lower latency and higher throughput compared to other state-of-the-art scheduling techniques. By adopting a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning approach, the agents can learn efficient scheduling policies that optimize various performance metrics in heterogeneous wireless networks.