Dynamic and Heterogeneous Network Slicing for Vehicular Edge Computing Based on Two-Timescale Reinforcement Learning
Xiaodong Li, Wencan Mao, Xinyi Xu, Yaxi Liu, Wei Huangfu, KePing Long, Yu Xiao, Yusheng Ji · IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing · 2026
Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) is an essential part of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) due to its low latency by moving the computational resources close to the edge. Although the introduction of network slicing into VEC improves resource utilization through dynamic resource allocation based on real-time demands and priorities, it increases the deployment and operational costs. In view of this, this paper envisions a resource allocation strategy for VEC based on network slicing technique, in which the tasks involved are not only dynamic but also heterogeneous. To minimize the system cost (including resource consumption and computation, network slice maintenance and reconfiguration costs), this paper proposes CST-RL, a confidence-based self-adjusting two-timescale reinforcement learning algorithm. This solution performs resource allocation and activation scheduling for network slices on a large timescale, while allocating slices to heterogeneous tasks on a short timescale to meet dynamic demands. In addition, we innovatively utilize critic in reinforcement learning to predict and compare the expected benefits of network slices with versus without reconfiguration. We introduce the Random Network Distillation (RND) technique to assess the confidence level of these benefits, thus providing guidance for network slices to automatically decide whether and when to undergo reconfiguration. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of CST-RL through simulations. Results show that CST-RL yields 27.77% lower system cost compared to the scheme without network slicing and 15.15% lower system cost compared to performing constant network slicing configuration, with guaranteed Quality-of-Service.