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 communication performance



Energy-Efficient Learning-Based Beamforming for ISAC-Enabled V2X Networks

Shang, Chen, Yu, Jiadong, Hoang, Dinh Thai

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This work proposes an energy-efficient, learning-based beamforming scheme for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)-enabled V2X networks. Specifically, we first model the dynamic and uncertain nature of V2X environments as a Markov Decision Process. This formulation allows the roadside unit to generate beamforming decisions based solely on current sensing information, thereby eliminating the need for frequent pilot transmissions and extensive channel state information acquisition. We then develop a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm to jointly optimize beamforming and power allocation, ensuring both communication throughput and sensing accuracy in highly dynamic scenario. To address the high energy demands of conventional learning-based schemes, we embed spiking neural networks (SNNs) into the DRL framework. Leveraging their event-driven and sparsely activated architecture, SNNs significantly enhance energy efficiency while maintaining robust performance. Simulation results confirm that the proposed method achieves substantial energy savings and superior communication performance, demonstrating its potential to support green and sustainable connectivity in future V2X systems.



Semantic Communication with Distribution Learning through Sequential Observations

Lahoud, Samer, Khawam, Kinda

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Semantic communication aims to convey meaning rather than bit-perfect reproduction, representing a paradigm shift from traditional communication. This paper investigates distribution learning in semantic communication where receivers must infer the underlying meaning distribution through sequential observations. While semantic communication traditionally optimizes individual meaning transmission, we establish fundamental conditions for learning source statistics when priors are unknown. We prove that learnability requires full rank of the effective transmission matrix, characterize the convergence rate of distribution estimation, and quantify how estimation errors translate to semantic distortion. Our analysis reveals a fundamental trade-off: encoding schemes optimized for immediate semantic performance often sacrifice long-term learnability. Experiments on CIFAR-10 validate our theoretical framework, demonstrating that system conditioning critically impacts both learning rate and achievable performance. These results provide the first rigorous characterization of statistical learning in semantic communication and offer design principles for systems that balance immediate performance with adaptation capability.


The Starlink Robot: A Platform and Dataset for Mobile Satellite Communication

Liu, Boyi, Zhang, Qianyi, Yang, Qiang, Jiao, Jianhao, Chauhan, Jagmohan, Kanoulas, Dimitrios

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The integration of satellite communication into mobile devices represents a paradigm shift in connectivity, yet the performance characteristics under motion and environmental occlusion remain poorly understood. We present the Starlink Robot, the first mobile robotic platform equipped with Starlink satellite internet, comprehensive sensor suite including upward-facing camera, LiDAR, and IMU, designed to systematically study satellite communication performance during movement. Our multi-modal dataset captures synchronized communication metrics, motion dynamics, sky visibility, and 3D environmental context across diverse scenarios including steady-state motion, variable speeds, and different occlusion conditions. This platform and dataset enable researchers to develop motion-aware communication protocols, predict connectivity disruptions, and optimize satellite communication for emerging mobile applications from smartphones to autonomous vehicles. In this work, we use LEOViz for real-time satellite tracking and data collection. The starlink robot project is available at https://github.com/StarlinkRobot.


Prediction of Acoustic Communication Performance for AUVs using Gaussian Process Classification

Gao, Yifei, Yetkin, Harun, James, McMahon, Stilwell, Daniel J.

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Cooperating autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) often rely on acoustic communication to coordinate their actions effectively. However, the reliability of underwater acoustic communication decreases as the communication range between vehicles increases. Consequently, teams of cooperating AUVs typically make conservative assumptions about the maximum range at which they can communicate reliably. To address this limitation, we propose a novel approach that involves learning a map representing the probability of successful communication based on the locations of the transmitting and receiving vehicles. This probabilistic communication map accounts for factors such as the range between vehicles, environmental noise, and multi-path effects at a given location. In pursuit of this goal, we investigate the application of Gaussian process binary classification to generate the desired communication map. We specialize existing results to this specific binary classification problem and explore methods to incorporate uncertainty in vehicle location into the mapping process. Furthermore, we compare the prediction performance of the probability communication map generated using binary classification with that of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) communication map generated using Gaussian process regression. Our approach is experimentally validated using communication and navigation data collected during trials with a pair of Virginia Tech 690 AUVs.


Integrating Online Learning and Connectivity Maintenance for Communication-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination

Yang, Yupeng, Lyu, Yiwei, Zhang, Yanze, Gao, Ian, Luo, Wenhao

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This paper proposes a novel data-driven control strategy for maintaining connectivity in networked multi-robot systems. Existing approaches often rely on a pre-determined communication model specifying whether pairwise robots can communicate given their relative distance to guide the connectivity-aware control design, which may not capture real-world communication conditions. To relax that assumption, we present the concept of Data-driven Connectivity Barrier Certificates, which utilize Control Barrier Functions (CBF) and Gaussian Processes (GP) to characterize the admissible control space for pairwise robots based on communication performance observed online. This allows robots to maintain a satisfying level of pairwise communication quality (measured by the received signal strength) while in motion. Then we propose a Data-driven Connectivity Maintenance (DCM) algorithm that combines (1) online learning of the communication signal strength and (2) a bi-level optimization-based control framework for the robot team to enforce global connectivity of the realistic multi-robot communication graph and minimally deviate from their task-related motions. We provide theoretical proofs to justify the properties of our algorithm and demonstrate its effectiveness through simulations with up to 20 robots.


sDAC -- Semantic Digital Analog Converter for Semantic Communications

Bao, Zhicheng, Dong, Chen, Xu, Xiaodong

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

In this paper, we propose a novel semantic digital analog converter (sDAC) for the compatibility of semantic communications and digital communications. Most of the current semantic communication systems are based on the analog modulations, ignoring their incorporation with digital communication systems, which are more common in practice. In fact, quantization methods in traditional communication systems are not appropriate for use in the era of semantic communication as these methods do not consider the semantic information inside symbols. In this case, any bit flip caused by channel noise can lead to a great performance drop. To address this challenge, sDAC is proposed. It is a simple yet efficient and generative module used to realize digital and analog bi-directional conversion. On the transmitter side, continuous values from the encoder are converted to binary bits and then can be modulated by any existing methods. After transmitting through the noisy channel, these bits get demodulated by paired methods and converted back to continuous values for further semantic decoding. The whole progress does not depend on any specific semantic model, modulation methods, or channel conditions. In the experiment section, the performance of sDAC is tested across different semantic models, semantic tasks, modulation methods, channel conditions and quantization orders. Test results show that the proposed sDAC has great generative properties and channel robustness.


CNN-Based Equalization for Communications: Achieving Gigabit Throughput with a Flexible FPGA Hardware Architecture

Ney, Jonas, Füllner, Christoph, Lauinger, Vincent, Schmalen, Laurent, Randel, Sebastian, Wehn, Norbert

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

To satisfy the growing throughput demand of data-intensive applications, the performance of optical communication systems increased dramatically in recent years. With higher throughput, more advanced equalizers are crucial, to compensate for impairments caused by inter-symbol interference (ISI). The latest research shows that artificial neural network (ANN)-based equalizers are promising candidates to replace traditional algorithms for high-throughput communications. On the other hand, not only throughput but also flexibility is a main objective of beyond-5G and 6G communication systems. A platform that is able to satisfy the strict throughput and flexibility requirements of modern communication systems are field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Thus, in this work, we present a high-performance FPGA implementation of an ANN-based equalizer, which meets the throughput requirements of modern optical communication systems. Further, our architecture is highly flexible since it includes a variable degree of parallelism (DOP) and therefore can also be applied to low-cost or low-power applications which is demonstrated for a magnetic recording channel. The implementation is based on a cross-layer design approach featuring optimizations from the algorithm down to the hardware architecture, including a detailed quantization analysis. Moreover, we present a framework to reduce the latency of the ANN-based equalizer under given throughput constraints. As a result, the bit error ratio (BER) of our equalizer for the optical fiber channel is around four times lower than that of a conventional one, while the corresponding FPGA implementation achieves a throughput of more than 40 GBd, outperforming a high-performance graphics processing unit (GPU) by three orders of magnitude for a similar batch size.


Unsupervised ANN-Based Equalizer and Its Trainable FPGA Implementation

Ney, Jonas, Lauinger, Vincent, Schmalen, Laurent, Wehn, Norbert

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

In recent years, communication engineers put strong emphasis on artificial neural network (ANN)-based algorithms with the aim of increasing the flexibility and autonomy of the system and its components. In this context, unsupervised training is of special interest as it enables adaptation without the overhead of transmitting pilot symbols. In this work, we present a novel ANN-based, unsupervised equalizer and its trainable field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation. We demonstrate that our custom loss function allows the ANN to adapt for varying channel conditions, approaching the performance of a supervised baseline. Furthermore, as a first step towards a practical communication system, we design an efficient FPGA implementation of our proposed algorithm, which achieves a throughput in the order of Gbit/s, outperforming a high-performance GPU by a large margin.