Task-Oriented Computation Offloading for Edge Inference: An Integrated Bayesian Optimization and Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework

Edge intelligence (EI) allows resource-constrained edge devices (EDs) to offload computation-intensive AI tasks (e.g., visual object detection) to edge servers (ESs) for fast execution. However, transmitting high-volume raw task data (e.g., 4K video) over bandwidth-limited wireless networks incurs significant latency. While EDs can reduce transmission latency by degrading data before transmission (e.g., reducing resolution from 4K to 720p or 480p), it often deteriorates inference accuracy, creating a critical accuracy-latency tradeoff. The difficulty in balancing this tradeoff stems from the absence of closed-form models capturing content-dependent accuracy-latency relationships. Besides, under bandwidth sharing constraints, the discrete degradation decisions among the EDs demonstrate inherent combinatorial complexity. Mathematically, it requires solving a challenging \textit{black-box} mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP). To address this problem, we propose LAB, a novel learning framework that seamlessly integrates deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and Bayesian optimization (BO). Specifically, LAB employs: (a) a DNN-based actor that maps input system state to degradation actions, directly addressing the combinatorial complexity of the MINLP; and (b) a BO-based critic with an explicit model built from fitting a Gaussian process surrogate with historical observations, enabling model-based evaluation of degradation actions. For each selected action, optimal bandwidth allocation is then efficiently derived via convex optimization. Numerical evaluations on real-world self-driving datasets demonstrate that LAB achieves near-optimal accuracy-latency tradeoff, exhibiting only 1.22\% accuracy degradation and 0.07s added latency compared to exhaustive search...