Zero-touch network is anticipated to inaugurate the generation of intelligent and highly flexible resource provisioning strategies where multiple service providers collaboratively offer computation and storage resources. This transformation presents substantial challenges to network administration and service providers regarding sustainability and scalability. This article combines Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) with Zero-touch Provisioning (ZTP) for edge networks. This combination helps to manage network devices seamlessly and intelligently by minimizing human intervention. In addition, several advantages are also highlighted that come with incorporating Distributed AI into ZTP in the context of edge networks. Further, we draw potential research directions to foster novel studies in this field and overcome the current limitations.

Digital twin, which enables emulation, evaluation, and optimization of physical entities through synchronized digital replicas, has gained increasingly attention as a promising technology for intricate wireless networks. For 6G, numerous innovative wireless technologies and network architectures have posed new challenges in establishing wireless network digital twins. To tackle these challenges, artificial intelligence (AI), particularly the flourishing generative AI, emerges as a potential solution. In this article, we discuss emerging prerequisites for wireless network digital twins considering the complicated network architecture, tremendous network scale, extensive coverage, and diversified application scenarios in the 6G era. We further explore the applications of generative AI, such as transformer and diffusion model, to empower the 6G digital twin from multiple perspectives including implementation, physical-digital synchronization, and slicing capability. Subsequently, we propose a hierarchical generative AI-enabled wireless network digital twin at both the message-level and policy-level, and provide a typical use case with numerical results to validate the effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, open research issues for wireless network digital twins in the 6G era are discussed.

As the demand for high-quality services proliferates, an innovative network architecture, the fully-decoupled RAN (FD-RAN), has emerged for more flexible spectrum resource utilization and lower network costs. However, with the decoupling of uplink base stations and downlink base stations in FD-RAN, the traditional transmission mechanism, which relies on real-time channel feedback, is not suitable as the receiver is not able to feedback accurate and timely channel state information to the transmitter. This paper proposes a novel transmission scheme without relying on physical layer channel feedback. Specifically, we design a radio map based complex-valued precoding network~(RMCPNet) model, which outputs the base station precoding based on user location. RMCPNet comprises multiple subnets, with each subnet responsible for extracting unique modal features from diverse input modalities. Furthermore, the multi-modal embeddings derived from these distinct subnets are integrated within the information fusion layer, culminating in a unified representation. We also develop a specific RMCPNet training algorithm that employs the negative spectral efficiency as the loss function. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme on the public DeepMIMO dataset and show that RMCPNet can achieve 16\% and 76\% performance improvements over the conventional real-valued neural network and statistical codebook approach, respectively.

An end-to-end fiber-based network holds the potential to provide multi-gigabit fixed access to end-users. However, deploying fiber access, especially in areas where fiber is non-existent, can be time-consuming and costly, resulting in delayed returns for Operators. This work investigates transmission data from fixed broadband wireless access in the mmWave band in 5G. Given the growing interest in this domain, understanding the transmission characteristics of the data becomes crucial. While existing datasets for the mmWave band are available, they are often generated from simulated environments. In this study, we introduce a dataset compiled from real-world transmission data collected from the Fixed Broadband Wireless Access in mmWave Band device (RWM6050). The aim is to facilitate self-configuration based on transmission characteristics. To achieve this, we propose an online machine learning-based approach for real-time training and classification of transmission characteristics. Additionally, we present two advanced temporal models for more accurate classifications. Our results demonstrate the ability to detect transmission angle and distance directly from the analysis of transmission data with very high accuracy, reaching up to 99% accuracy on the combined classification task. Finally, we outline promising future research directions based on the collected data.

Network slicing-based communication systems can dynamically and efficiently allocate resources for diversified services. However, due to the limitation of the network interface on channel access and the complexity of the resource allocation, it is challenging to achieve an acceptable solution in the practical system without precise prior knowledge of the dynamics probability model of the service requests. Existing work attempts to solve this problem using deep reinforcement learning (DRL), however, such methods usually require a lot of interaction with the real environment in order to achieve good results. In this paper, a framework consisting of a digital twin and reinforcement learning agents is present to handle the issue. Specifically, we propose to use the historical data and the neural networks to build a digital twin model to simulate the state variation law of the real environment. Then, we use the data generated by the network slicing environment to calibrate the digital twin so that it is in sync with the real environment. Finally, DRL for slice optimization optimizes its own performance in this virtual pre-verification environment. We conducted an exhaustive verification of the proposed digital twin framework to confirm its scalability. Specifically, we propose to use loss landscapes to visualize the generalization of DRL solutions. We explore a distillation-based optimization scheme for lightweight slicing strategies. In addition, we also extend the framework to offline reinforcement learning, where solutions can be used to obtain intelligent decisions based solely on historical data. Numerical simulation experiments show that the proposed digital twin can significantly improve the performance of the slice optimization strategy.

The digital landscape of the Internet of Energy (IoE) is on the brink of a revolutionary transformation with the integration of edge Artificial Intelligence (AI). This comprehensive review elucidates the promise and potential that edge AI holds for reshaping the IoE ecosystem. Commencing with a meticulously curated research methodology, the article delves into the myriad of edge AI techniques specifically tailored for IoE. The myriad benefits, spanning from reduced latency and real-time analytics to the pivotal aspects of information security, scalability, and cost-efficiency, underscore the indispensability of edge AI in modern IoE frameworks. As the narrative progresses, readers are acquainted with pragmatic applications and techniques, highlighting on-device computation, secure private inference methods, and the avant-garde paradigms of AI training on the edge. A critical analysis follows, offering a deep dive into the present challenges including security concerns, computational hurdles, and standardization issues. However, as the horizon of technology ever expands, the review culminates in a forward-looking perspective, envisaging the future symbiosis of 5G networks, federated edge AI, deep reinforcement learning, and more, painting a vibrant panorama of what the future beholds. For anyone vested in the domains of IoE and AI, this review offers both a foundation and a visionary lens, bridging the present realities with future possibilities.

Federated learning effectively addresses issues such as data privacy by collaborating across participating devices to train global models. However, factors such as network topology and device computing power can affect its training or communication process in complex network environments. A new network architecture and paradigm with computing-measurable, perceptible, distributable, dispatchable, and manageable capabilities, computing and network convergence (CNC) of 6G networks can effectively support federated learning training and improve its communication efficiency. By guiding the participating devices' training in federated learning based on business requirements, resource load, network conditions, and arithmetic power of devices, CNC can reach this goal. In this paper, to improve the communication efficiency of federated learning in complex networks, we study the communication efficiency optimization of federated learning for computing and network convergence of 6G networks, methods that gives decisions on its training process for different network conditions and arithmetic power of participating devices in federated learning. The experiments address two architectures that exist for devices in federated learning and arrange devices to participate in training based on arithmetic power while achieving optimization of communication efficiency in the process of transferring model parameters. The results show that the method we proposed can (1) cope well with complex network situations (2) effectively balance the delay distribution of participating devices for local training (3) improve the communication efficiency during the transfer of model parameters (4) improve the resource utilization in the network.

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have gained significant popularity for classification tasks in machine learning, yet their applications to regression problems remain limited. Concurrently, attention mechanisms have emerged as powerful tools in sequential learning tasks. In this paper, we employ GNNs and attention mechanisms to address a classical but challenging nonlinear regression problem: network localization. We propose a novel GNN-based network localization method that achieves exceptional stability and accuracy in the presence of severe non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagations, while eliminating the need for laborious offline calibration or NLOS identification. Extensive experimental results validate the effectiveness and high accuracy of our GNN-based localization model, particularly in challenging NLOS scenarios. However, the proposed GNN-based model exhibits limited flexibility, and its accuracy is highly sensitive to a specific hyperparameter that determines the graph structure. To address the limitations and extend the applicability of the GNN-based model to real scenarios, we introduce two attentional graph neural networks (AGNNs) that offer enhanced flexibility and the ability to automatically learn the optimal hyperparameter for each node. Experimental results confirm that the AGNN models are able to enhance localization accuracy, providing a promising solution for real-world applications. We also provide some analyses of the improved performance achieved by the AGNN models from the perspectives of dynamic attention and signal denoising characteristics.

A five-month rally in MediaTek looks set to extend as booming demand for smartphones and a promising new AI chip brighten the company's outlook. The Taiwanese tech firm's stock has soared almost 40% since the end of June, outperforming a 2% advance in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index and a 7% rise in its U.S.-based rival Qualcomm. The gains have been fueled by robust appetite for mobile devices that utilize the company's chips, especially in China. The buzz surrounding MediaTek casts a spotlight on growing competition between semiconductor firms that are exploiting the use of AI to grab a larger share of the smartphone business. Investors see the Taiwanese firm's Dimensity 9300 chip as a game-changer that will help it to steal a march over Qualcomm, the current leader in the high-end mobile market.

Wireless communication networks constitute complex systems This interest can be attributed to the innate characteristics of demanding careful optimization of network procedures GNNs, which enable a scalable solution and exhibit inductive to attain predefined performance objectives. Multi-agent deep capability and, thanks to the permutation equivariance property, reinforcement learning (MADRL), owing to its inherent advantages, increased generalization. Notably, these properties find has emerged as a promising strategy for the optimization practical application in works such as [5], where GNNs are of a variety of network problems. Nevertheless, the practical harnessed to capture the dynamic structure of fading channel implementation of MADRL in real systems is hindered by states for the purpose of learning optimal resource allocation challenges related to convergence, which continue to constitute policies in wireless networks. Another domain that has witnessed an active area of research. These challenges encompass the substantial utilization of GNNs is channel management non-stationarity of the environment, the partial observability of within wireless local area networks (WLANs), as evidenced the state, as well as the coordination and cooperation among by works such as [6] and [7]. A notable insight derived from agents [1, 2]. To this end, this paper elucidates the role of the study by Gao et al. [6] is the inherent property of GNNs to leveraging graph structures as an effective means to account provide decentralized inference, rendering them a viable and for non-stationarity in MADRL systems by introducing a promising approach for the practical implementation of overthe-air relational inductive bias in the collective decision-making MADRL systems.