A crowd-sensing framework for allocation of time-constrained and location-based tasks

Thanks to the capabilities of the built-in sensors of smart devices, mobile crowd-sensing (MCS) has become a promising technique for massive data collection. In this paradigm, the service provider recruits workers (i.e., common people with smart devices) to perform sensing tasks requested by the consumers. To efficiently handle workers' recruitment and task allocation, several factors have to be considered such as the quality of the sensed data that the workers can deliver and the different tasks locations. This allocation becomes even more challenging when the MCS tries to efficiently allocate multiple tasks under limited budget, time constraints, and the uncertainty that selected workers will not be able to perform the tasks. In this paper, we propose a service computing framework for time constrained-task allocation in location based crowd-sensing systems. This framework relies on (1) a recruitment algorithm that implements a multi-objective task allocation algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization, (2) queuing schemes to handle efficiently the incoming sensing tasks in the server side and at the end-user side, (3) a task delegation mechanism to avoid delaying or declining the sensing requests due to unforeseen user context, and (4) a reputation management component to manage the reputation of users based on their sensing activities and task delegation. The platform goal is to efficiently determine the most appropriate set of workers to assign to each incoming task so that high quality results are returned within the requested response time. Simulations are conducted using real datasets from Foursquare1 and Enron email social network.2 Simulation results show that the proposed framework maximizes the aggregated quality of information, reduces the budget and response time to perform a task and increases the average recommenders' reputation and their payment.