Age of Information Optimization in Multi-Channel Network with Sided Information

Abstract: We consider a discrete-time multi-channel network where the destination collects time-sensitive packets from multiple sources with sided channel information. The popular metric, Age of Information (AoI), is applied to measure the data freshness at the destination. Due to the interference constraint, only disjoint source-channel pairs can be chosen for transmission in each time slot, and the decision maker should choose the optimal scheduling pairs to minimize the average AoI at the destination. To learn the optimal channel selection, we apply the linear contextual bandit (LCB) framework by utilizing the sided information provided by pilots. Concretely, we establish the relationship between AoI regret and sub-optimal channel selection times and propose both age-independent and age-dependent algorithms. The former method is proven to achieve the sub-linear AoI regret but is outperformed by the latter algorithm both in the linear and non-linear contextual model in simulation.