  Edge computing as a promising technology provides lower latency, more
efficient transmission, and faster speed of data processing since the edge
servers are closer to the user devices. Each edge server with limited resources
can offload latency-sensitive and computation-intensive tasks from nearby user
devices. However, edge computing faces challenges such as resource allocation,
energy consumption, security and privacy issues, etc. Auction mechanisms can
well characterize bidirectional interactions between edge servers and user
devices under the above constraints in edge computing. As demonstrated by the
existing works, auction and mechanism design approaches are outstanding on
achieving optimal allocation strategy while guaranteeing mutual satisfaction
among edge servers and user devices, especially for scenarios with scarce
resources. In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive survey of recent
researches that apply auction approaches in edge computing. Firstly, a brief
overview of edge computing including three common edge computing paradigms,
i.e., cloudlet, fog computing and mobile edge computing, is presented. Then, we
introduce fundamentals and backgrounds of auction schemes commonly used in edge
computing systems. After then, a comprehensive survey of applications of
auction-based approaches applied for edge computing is provided, which is
categorized by different auction approaches. Finally, several open challenges
and promising research directions are discussed.
