Multi-Queue Priority-Based Scheduling for Real-Time Edge Computing Applications
The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has intensified demands for low-latency, resource-efficient task scheduling at the network edge. Conventional policies such as Round-Robin and First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) fail to satisfy the Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements of Industrial-IoT and autonomous-vehicle workloads. This paper presents Multi-Queue Priority-Based Scheduling (MQPBS), a lightweight algorithm that classifies tasks into three dynamic priority queues (High, Medium, Low) using deadline-aware heuristics, applies Shortest-Job-First (SJF) intra-queue ordering, and employs an aging mechanism to prevent starvation. Extensive simulation over task sets of 200–1000 tasks demonstrates that MQPBS reduces average waiting time by up to 17.6%, improves throughput by up to 10.8%, lowers energy consumption by 20%, and cuts the Deadline Miss Ratio (DMR) compared with the Priority-Aware Task-Scheduling (PaTS) baseline. Ablation experiments confirm the independent contribution of each algorithmic component. Scalability and sensitivity analyses further validate the robustness of MQPBS under heterogeneous arrival patterns and varying load intensities. The results establish MQPBS as a scalable, reliable scheduler for next-generation edge infrastructures.