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 semantic communication


Semantic-Aware Cooperative Communication and Computation Framework in Vehicular Networks

Zhang, Jingbo, Ji, Maoxin, Wu, Qiong, Fan, Pingyi, Wang, Kezhi, Chen, Wen

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Abstract--Semantic Communication (SC) combined with V e-hicular edge computing (VEC) provides an efficient edge task processing paradigm for Internet of V ehicles (IoV). Focusing on highway scenarios, this paper proposes a Tripartite Cooperative Semantic Communication (TCSC) framework, which enables V e-hicle Users (VUs) to perform semantic task offloading via V ehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and V ehicle-to-V ehicle (V2V) communications. Considering task latency and the number of semantic symbols, the framework constructs a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) problem, which is transformed into two subproblems. First, we innovatively propose a multi-agent proximal policy optimization task offloading optimization method based on parametric distribution noise (MAPPO-PDN) to solve the optimization problem of the number of semantic symbols; second, linear programming (LP) is used to solve offloading ratio. Simulations show that performance of this scheme is superior to that of other algorithms.


Over-the-Air Semantic Alignment with Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces

Pandolfo, Mario Edoardo, Stylianopoulos, Kyriakos, Alexandropoulos, George C., Di Lorenzo, Paolo

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Abstract--Semantic communication systems aim to transmit task-relevant information between devices capable of artificial intelligence, but their performance can degrade when heterogeneous transmitter-receiver models produce misaligned latent representations. Existing semantic alignment methods typically rely on additional digital processing at the transmitter or receiver, increasing overall device complexity. In this work, we introduce the first over-the-air semantic alignment framework based on stacked intelligent metasurfaces (SIM), which enables latent-space alignment directly in the wave domain, reducing substantially the computational burden at the device level. T o realize these operators physically, we develop a gradient-based optimization procedure that tailors the metasurface transfer function to a desired semantic mapping. Experiments with heterogeneous vision transformer (ViT) encoders show that SIMs can accurately reproduce both supervised and zero-shot semantic equalizers, achieving up to 90% task accuracy in regimes with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while maintaining strong robustness even at low SNR values.


Towards 6G Native-AI Edge Networks: A Semantic-Aware and Agentic Intelligence Paradigm

Feng, Chenyuan, Zhang, Anbang, Min, Geyong, Huang, Yongming, Quek, Tony Q. S., You, Xiaohu

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The evolution toward sixth-generation wireless systems positions intelligence as a native network capability, fundamentally transforming the design of radio access networks (RANs). Within this vision, Semantic-native communication and agentic intelligence are expected to play central roles. SemCom departs from bit-level fidelity and instead emphasizes task-oriented meaning exchange, enabling compact SC and introducing new performance measures such as semantic fidelity and task success rate. Agentic intelligence endows distributed RAN entities with goal-driven autonomy, reasoning, planning, and multi-agent collaboration, increasingly supported by foundation models and knowledge graphs. In this work, we first introduce the conceptual foundations of SemCom and agentic networking, and discuss why existing AI-driven O-RAN solutions remain largely bit-centric and task-siloed. We then present a unified taxonomy that organizes recent research along three axes: i) semantic abstraction level (symbol/feature/intent/knowledge), ii) agent autonomy and coordination granularity (single-, multi-, and hierarchical-agent), and iii) RAN control placement across PHY/MAC, near-real-time RIC, and non-real-time RIC. Based on this taxonomy, we systematically introduce enabling technologies including task-oriented semantic encoders/decoders, multi-agent reinforcement learning, foundation-model-assisted RAN agents, and knowledge-graph-based reasoning for cross-layer awareness. Representative 6G use cases, such as immersive XR, vehicular V2X, and industrial digital twins, are analyzed to illustrate the semantic-agentic convergence in practice. Finally, we identify open challenges in semantic representation standardization, scalable trustworthy agent coordination, O-RAN interoperability, and energy-efficient AI deployment, and outline research directions toward operational semantic-agentic AI-RAN.


Large Speech Model Enabled Semantic Communication

Tian, Yun, Qin, Zhijin, Lv, Guocheng, Jin, Ye, Huang, Kaibin, Han, Zhu

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Abstract--Existing speech semantic communication systems mainly based on Joint Source-Channel Coding (JSCC) architectures have demonstrated impressive performance, but their effectiveness remains limited by model structures specifically designed for particular tasks and datasets. Recent advances indicate that generative large models pre-trained on massive datasets, can achieve outstanding performance arexhibit exceptional performance across diverse downstream tasks with minimal fine-tuning. T o exploit the rich semantic knowledge embedded in large models and enable adaptive transmission over lossy channels, we propose a Large Speech Model enabled Semantic Communication (LargeSC) system. Simultaneously achieving adaptive compression and robust transmission over lossy channels remains challenging, requiring trade-offs among compression efficiency, speech quality, and latency. In this work, we employ the Mimi as a speech codec, converting speech into discrete tokens compatible with existing network architectures. We propose an adaptive controller module that enables adaptive transmission and in-band Unequal Error Protection (UEP), dynamically adjusting to both speech content and packet loss probability under bandwidth constraints. Additionally, we employ Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) to finetune the Moshi foundation model for generative recovery of lost speech tokens. Simulation results show that the proposed system supports bandwidths ranging from 550 bps to 2.06 kbps, outperforms conventional baselines in speech quality under high packet loss rates and achieves an end-to-end latency of approximately 460 ms, thereby demonstrating its potential for real-time deployment. Driven by recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the increasing demand for intelligent next-generation communication systems, semantic communication has attracted significant attention. This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2023YFB2904300, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 62293484, and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (F251001). Zhijin Qin is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China, andv with the State Key Laboratory of Space Network and Communications, Beijing, 100084, China. Kaibin Huang is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (email: huangkb@hku.hk). Z. Han is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004 USA, and also with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea, 446-701 (email: hanzhu22@gmail.com).


Learning Network Sheaves for AI-native Semantic Communication

Grimaldi, Enrico, Pandolfo, Mario Edoardo, D'Acunto, Gabriele, Barbarossa, Sergio, Di Lorenzo, Paolo

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Recent advances in AI call for a paradigm shift from bit-centric communication to goal- and semantics-oriented architectures, paving the way for AI-native 6G networks. In this context, we address a key open challenge: enabling heterogeneous AI agents to exchange compressed latent-space representations while mitigating semantic noise and preserving task-relevant meaning. We cast this challenge as learning both the communication topology and the alignment maps that govern information exchange among agents, yielding a learned network sheaf equipped with orthogonal maps. This learning process is further supported by a semantic denoising end compression module that constructs a shared global semantic space and derives sparse, structured representations of each agent's latent space. This corresponds to a nonconvex dictionary learning problem solved iteratively with closed-form updates. Experiments with mutiple AI agents pre-trained on real image data show that the semantic denoising and compression facilitates AI agents alignment and the extraction of semantic clusters, while preserving high accuracy in downstream task. The resulting communication network provides new insights about semantic heterogeneity across agents, highlighting the interpretability of our methodology.


SemAgent: Semantic-Driven Agentic AI Empowered Trajectory Prediction in Vehicular Networks

Zhu, Lin, Wang, Kezhi, Xiang, Luping, Yang, Kun

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Abstract--Efficient information exchange and reliable contextual reasoning are essential for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks. Conventional communication schemes often incur significant transmission overhead and latency, while existing trajectory prediction models generally lack environmental perception and logical inference capabilities. This paper presents a trajectory prediction framework that integrates semantic communication with Agentic AI to enhance predictive performance in vehicular environments. In vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, a feature-extraction agent at the Roadside Unit (RSU) derives compact representations from historical vehicle trajectories, followed by semantic reasoning performed by a semantic-analysis agent. The RSU then transmits both feature representations and semantic insights to the target vehicle via semantic communication, enabling the vehicle to predict future trajectories by combining received semantics with its own historical data. In vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, each vehicle performs local feature extraction and semantic analysis while receiving predicted trajectories from neighboring vehicles, and jointly utilizes this information for its own trajectory prediction. Extensive experiments across diverse communication conditions demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms baseline schemes, achieving up to a 47.5% improvement in prediction accuracy under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. ITH the rapid evolution of 5G and emerging 6G wireless technologies, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) [1] systems have experienced significant advancements. V2X enables real-time information exchange among vehicles, infrastructure, pedestrians, and cloud services [2], and has become a fundamental enabler for intelligent transportation and autonomous driving.


Agentic AI-Empowered Conversational Embodied Intelligence Networks in 6G

Chen, Mingkai, Feng, Zijie, Wang, Lei, Khamayseh, Yaser

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Abstract--In the 6G era, semantic collaboration among multiple embodied intelligent devices (MEIDs) is becoming a key capability for complex task execution. However, existing systems remain some challenges on multimodal information fusion, adaptive communication, and decision interpretability, enabling efficient collaboration in dynamic environment. T o address this, we propose a Collaborative Conversational Embodied Intelligence Network (CC-EIN) framework that integrates multimodal feature fusion, adaptive semantic communication, task coordination, and interpretability. Second, an adaptive semantic communication strategy dynamically adjusts coding schemes, compression ratios, and transmission power according to the urgency of the task and the channel conditions, thus improving spectrum efficiency under bandwidth constraints. Third, a semantic-driven collaboration mechanism decomposes and allocates tasks through a shared knowledge base, enabling drones, autonomous vehicles, and robot dogs to cooperate effectively while avoiding conflicts. Finally, decision visualization using Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) highlights agents' focus areas during decision-making, enhancing transparency and trust. Simulations show that the proposed framework achieves a 95.4% task completion rate (TCR) and 95% transmission efficiency (TE) in post-earthquake rescue scenarios, while showing significant advantages in semantic consistency (SC) and energy-adaptive performance. Index T erms--semantic collaboration, embodied intelligent devices, adaptive communication, multimodal feature fusion, interpretability.


Joint Semantic-Channel Coding and Modulation for Token Communications

Ying, Jingkai, Qin, Zhijin, Feng, Yulong, Wang, Liejun, Tao, Xiaoming

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

In recent years, the Transformer architecture has achieved outstanding performance across a wide range of tasks and modalities. Token is the unified input and output representation in Transformer-based models, which has become a fundamental information unit. In this work, we consider the problem of token communication, studying how to transmit tokens efficiently and reliably. Point cloud, a prevailing three-dimensional format which exhibits a more complex spatial structure compared to image or video, is chosen to be the information source. We utilize the set abstraction method to obtain point tokens. Subsequently, to get a more informative and transmission-friendly representation based on tokens, we propose a joint semantic-channel and modulation (JSCCM) scheme for the token encoder, mapping point tokens to standard digital constellation points (modulated tokens). Specifically, the JSCCM consists of two parallel Point Transformer-based encoders and a differential modulator which combines the Gumel-softmax and soft quantization methods. Besides, the rate allocator and channel adapter are developed, facilitating adaptive generation of high-quality modulated tokens conditioned on both semantic information and channel conditions. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms both joint semantic-channel coding and traditional separate coding, achieving over 1dB gain in reconstruction and more than 6x compression ratio in modulated symbols.


Adaptive Pareto-Optimal Token Merging for Edge Transformer Models in Semantic Communication

Erak, Omar, Alhussein, Omar, Abou-Zeid, Hatem, Bennis, Mehdi

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Large-scale transformer models have emerged as a powerful tool for semantic communication systems, enabling edge devices to extract rich representations for robust inference across noisy wireless channels. However, their substantial computational demands remain a major barrier to practical deployment in resource-constrained 6G networks. In this paper, we present a training-free framework for adaptive token merging in pretrained vision transformers to jointly reduce inference time and transmission resource usage. We formulate the selection of per-layer merging proportions as a multi-objective optimization problem to balance accuracy and computational cost. We employ Gaussian process-based Bayesian optimization to construct a Pareto frontier of optimal configurations, enabling flexible runtime adaptation to dynamic application requirements and channel conditions. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method consistently outperforms other baselines and achieves significant reductions in floating-point operations while maintaining competitive accuracy across a wide range of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Additional results highlight the effectiveness of adaptive policies that adjust merging aggressiveness in response to channel quality, providing a practical mechanism to trade off latency and semantic fidelity on demand. These findings establish a scalable and efficient approach for deploying transformer-based semantic communication in future edge intelligence systems.


Hybrid Bit and Semantic Communications

Yu, Kaiwen, Fan, Renhe, Wu, Gang, Qin, Zhijin

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Semantic communication technology is regarded as a method surpassing the Shannon limit of bit transmission, capable of effectively enhancing transmission efficiency. However, current approaches that directly map content to transmission symbols are challenging to deploy in practice, imposing significant limitations on the development of semantic communication. To address this challenge, we propose a hybrid bit and semantic communication system, named HybridBSC, in which encoded semantic information is inserted into bit information for transmission via conventional digital communication systems utilizing same spectrum resources. The system can be easily deployed using existing communication architecture to achieve bit and semantic information transmission. Particularly, we design a semantic insertion and extraction scheme to implement this strategy. Furthermore, we conduct experimental validation based on the pluto-based software defined radio (SDR) platform in a real wireless channel, demonstrating that the proposed strategy can simultaneously transmit semantic and bit information.