Energy-efficient and Privacy-preserving Edge Intelligence for 6G-Empowered Intelligent Transportation Systems

6G-empowered Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) generate large amounts of data through millions of devices and sensors at the terminal and network edge. Edge intelligence advances the frontier of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) to the network edge, which enables AI applications to better utilize edge data. Broader connectivity, higher device density, and stronger data exchange present challenges for reliable device communication and privacy data protection in 6G-empowered ITS. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an energy-efficient and privacy-preserving edge intelligence framework named EP-EI. EP-EI deploys a deep reinforcement learning-based cluster head selection model at the edge to ensure energy-efficient communication for terminal devices. Meanwhile, EP-EI designs a privacy-aware hierarchical computing framework for terminal-edge-cloud to prevent privacy leakage. Furthermore, the application scenarios, challenges, and future directions of EP-EI are discussed. Finally, simulation experiments in a specific intelligent transportation case study demonstrate that EP-EI can provide energy-efficient and privacy-protecting services.