Instant AoI Optimization in IoT Networks with Packet Combination

This paper studies the freshness of data delivery, measured by the recently proposed Age of Information (AoI) metric, in Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Given IoT networks with plenty of edge devices to upload their sealed packets, re-packing multiple packets into one at each sink node by removing redundant packet headers could significantly improve transmission efficiency. We investigate such packet combination behaviors in transmitting the monitored/collected data from sensing nodes to accelerate data delivery, enabling the IoT edge server to acquire the latest updates timely. Two data acquisition modes, i.e., Periodic Request and Proactive Request, at the IoT edge server are considered. Under each mode, we derive the AoI formula, develop mathematical modeling, formulate the problem, and propose a low-complexity scheduling algorithm by leveraging packet combination with an aim to minimize the Instant AoI at the edge server. Through numerical results, we demonstrate the advantages of packet combination behaviors for AoI performance improvement.