Mobile crowd sensing task optimal allocation: a mobility pattern matching perspective

Abstract

With the proliferation of sensor-equipped portable mobile devices, Mobile CrowdSensing (MCS) using smart devices provides unprecedented opportunities for collecting enormous surrounding data. In MCS applications, a crucial issue is how to recruit appropriate participants from a pool of available users to accomplish released tasks, satisfying both resource efficiency and sensing quality. In order to meet these two optimization goals simultaneously, in this paper, we present a novel MCS task allocation framework by aligning existing task sequence with users’ moving regularity as much as possible. Based on the process of mobility repetitive pattern discovery, the original task allocation problem is converted into a pattern matching issue, and the involved optimization goals are transformed into pattern matching length and support degree indicators. To determine a trade-off between these two competitive metrics, we propose greedy-based optimal assignment scheme search approaches, namely MLP, MDP, IU1 and IU2 algorithm, with respect to matching length-preferred, support degree-preferred and integrated utility, respectively. Comprehensive experiments on realworld open data set and synthetic data set clearly validate the effectiveness of our proposed framework on MCS task optimal allocation.