Yonghui Li

Ruichen Zhang, Xiaofeng Luo, Jiayi He et al.

This paper investigates compact large language model (LLM) deployment and world-model-assisted inference offloading in mobile edge computing (MEC) networks. We first propose an edge compact LLM deployment (ECLD) framework that jointly applies structured pruning, low-bit quantization, and knowledge distillation to construct edge-deployable LLM variants, and we evaluate these models using four complementary metrics: accessibility, energy consumption, hallucination rate, and generalization accuracy. Building on the resulting compact models, we formulate an MEC offloading optimization problem that minimizes the long-term average inference latency subject to per-device energy budgets and LLM-specific quality-of-service constraints on effective accuracy and hallucination. To solve this problem under unknown and time-varying network dynamics, we develop a world model-proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm, which augments an on-policy PPO algorithm with a learned recurrent world model that provides improved value targets and short imagination rollouts. Extensive experiments on Llama-3.1-8B, Qwen3-8B, and Mistral-12B show that ECLD compresses base models by about 70-80% in storage (i.e., from 15.3 GB to 3.3 GB for Llama-3.1-8B) and reduces per-query energy consumption by up to 50%, while largely preserving accuracy and often lowering hallucination compared with quantization-only or pruning-only baselines. Moreover, they also show that world model-PPO speeds up convergence by about 50%, improves the final reward by 15.8% over vanilla PPO, and reduces average inference latency by 12-30% across different user populations, while satisfying the accuracy and hallucination constraints and approaching the generation quality of always-offloading with much of the efficiency of local execution.

Zihuai Zhao, Wanchun Liu, Daniel E. Quevedo et al.

Wireless networked control system (WNCS) connecting sensors, controllers, and actuators via wireless communications is a key enabling technology for highly scalable and low-cost deployment of control systems in the Industry 4.0 era. Despite the tight interaction of control and communications in WNCSs, most existing works adopt separative design approaches. This is mainly because the co-design of control-communication policies requires large and hybrid state and action spaces, making the optimal problem mathematically intractable and difficult to be solved effectively by classic algorithms. In this paper, we systematically investigate deep learning (DL)-based estimator-control-scheduler co-design for a model-unknown nonlinear WNCS over wireless fading channels. In particular, we propose a co-design framework with the awareness of the sensor's age-of-information (AoI) states and dynamic channel states. We propose a novel deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm for controller and scheduler optimization utilizing both model-free and model-based data. An AoI-based importance sampling algorithm that takes into account the data accuracy is proposed for enhancing learning efficiency. We also develop novel schemes for enhancing the stability of joint training. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed joint training algorithm can effectively solve the estimation-control-scheduling co-design problem in various scenarios and provide significant performance gain compared to separative design and some benchmark policies.

Dawei Gao, Qinghua Guo, Guisheng Liao et al.

In this paper, we investigate signal detection in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems with hardware impairments, such as power amplifier nonlinearity and in-phase/quadrature imbalance. To deal with the complex combined effects of hardware imperfections, neural network (NN) techniques, in particular deep neural networks (DNNs), have been studied to directly compensate for the impact of hardware impairments. However, it is difficult to train a DNN with limited pilot signals, hindering its practical applications. In this work, we investigate how to achieve efficient Bayesian signal detection in MIMO systems with hardware imperfections. Characterizing combined hardware imperfections often leads to complicated signal models, making Bayesian signal detection challenging. To address this issue, we first train an NN to "model" the MIMO system with hardware imperfections and then perform Bayesian inference based on the trained NN. Modelling the MIMO system with NN enables the design of NN architectures based on the signal flow of the MIMO system, minimizing the number of NN layers and parameters, which is crucial to achieving efficient training with limited pilot signals. We then represent the trained NN with a factor graph, and design an efficient message passing based Bayesian signal detector, leveraging the unitary approximate message passing (UAMP) algorithm. The implementation of a turbo receiver with the proposed Bayesian detector is also investigated. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique delivers remarkably better performance than state-of-the-art methods.

Jiazheng Chen, Wanchun Liu, Daniel E. Quevedo et al.

Remote state estimation of large-scale distributed dynamic processes plays an important role in Industry 4.0 applications. In this paper, we focus on the transmission scheduling problem of a remote estimation system. First, we derive some structural properties of the optimal sensor scheduling policy over fading channels. Then, building on these theoretical guidelines, we develop a structure-enhanced deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework for optimal scheduling of the system to achieve the minimum overall estimation mean-square error (MSE). In particular, we propose a structure-enhanced action selection method, which tends to select actions that obey the policy structure. This explores the action space more effectively and enhances the learning efficiency of DRL agents. Furthermore, we introduce a structure-enhanced loss function to add penalties to actions that do not follow the policy structure. The new loss function guides the DRL to converge to the optimal policy structure quickly. Our numerical experiments illustrate that the proposed structure-enhanced DRL algorithms can save the training time by 50% and reduce the remote estimation MSE by 10% to 25% when compared to benchmark DRL algorithms. In addition, we show that the derived structural properties exist in a wide range of dynamic scheduling problems that go beyond remote state estimation.

Zhengdao Yuan, Qinghua Guo, Yonina C. Eldar et al.

We consider matrix factorization (MF) with certain constraints, which finds wide applications in various areas. Leveraging variational inference (VI) and unitary approximate message passing (UAMP), we develop a Bayesian approach to MF with an efficient message passing implementation, called UAMPMF. With proper priors imposed on the factor matrices, UAMPMF can be used to solve many problems that can be formulated as MF, such as non negative matrix factorization, dictionary learning, compressive sensing with matrix uncertainty, robust principal component analysis, and sparse matrix factorization. Extensive numerical examples are provided to show that UAMPMF significantly outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of recovery accuracy, robustness and computational complexity.

Kou Tian, Chentao Yue, Changyang She et al.

In this work, we propose a novel decoding algorithm for short block codes based on an edge-weighted graph neural network (EW-GNN). The EW-GNN decoder operates on the Tanner graph with an iterative message-passing structure, which algorithmically aligns with the conventional belief propagation (BP) decoding method. In each iteration, the "weight" on the message passed along each edge is obtained from a fully connected neural network that has the reliability information from nodes/edges as its input. Compared to existing deep-learning-based decoding schemes, the EW-GNN decoder is characterised by its scalability, meaning that 1) the number of trainable parameters is independent of the codeword length, and 2) an EW-GNN decoder trained with shorter/simple codes can be directly used for longer/sophisticated codes of different code rates. Furthermore, simulation results show that the EW-GNN decoder outperforms the BP and deep-learning-based BP methods from the literature in terms of the decoding error rate.

Jiazheng Chen, Wanchun Liu, Daniel E. Quevedo et al.

Remote state estimation of large-scale distributed dynamic processes plays an important role in Industry 4.0 applications. In this paper, by leveraging the theoretical results of structural properties of optimal scheduling policies, we develop a structure-enhanced deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework for optimal scheduling of a multi-sensor remote estimation system to achieve the minimum overall estimation mean-square error (MSE). In particular, we propose a structure-enhanced action selection method, which tends to select actions that obey the policy structure. This explores the action space more effectively and enhances the learning efficiency of DRL agents. Furthermore, we introduce a structure-enhanced loss function to add penalty to actions that do not follow the policy structure. The new loss function guides the DRL to converge to the optimal policy structure quickly. Our numerical results show that the proposed structure-enhanced DRL algorithms can save the training time by 50% and reduce the remote estimation MSE by 10% to 25%, when compared to benchmark DRL algorithms.

Yan Lu, Xinzhu Ma, Lei Yang et al.

Geometry plays a significant role in monocular 3D object detection. It can be used to estimate object depth by using the perspective projection between object's physical size and 2D projection in the image plane, which can introduce mathematical priors into deep models. However, this projection process also introduces error amplification, where the error of the estimated height is amplified and reflected into the projected depth. It leads to unreliable depth inferences and also impairs training stability. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel Geometry Uncertainty Propagation Network (GUPNet++) by modeling geometry projection in a probabilistic manner. This ensures depth predictions are well-bounded and associated with a reasonable uncertainty. The significance of introducing such geometric uncertainty is two-fold: (1). It models the uncertainty propagation relationship of the geometry projection during training, improving the stability and efficiency of the end-to-end model learning. (2). It can be derived to a highly reliable confidence to indicate the quality of the 3D detection result, enabling more reliable detection inference. Experiments show that the proposed approach not only obtains (state-of-the-art) SOTA performance in image-based monocular 3D detection but also demonstrates superiority in efficacy with a simplified framework.

Han Meng, Yuexing Peng, Wenbo Wang et al.

This paper proposes a knowledge-and-data-driven graph neural network-based collaboration learning model for reliable aircraft recognition in a heterogeneous radar network. The aircraft recognizability analysis shows that: (1) the semantic feature of an aircraft is motion patterns driven by the kinetic characteristics, and (2) the grammatical features contained in the radar cross-section (RCS) signals present spatial-temporal-frequency (STF) diversity decided by both the electromagnetic radiation shape and motion pattern of the aircraft. Then a STF graph attention convolutional network (STFGACN) is developed to distill semantic features from the RCS signals received by the heterogeneous radar network. Extensive experiment results verify that the STFGACN outperforms the baseline methods in terms of detection accuracy, and ablation experiments are carried out to further show that the expansion of the information dimension can gain considerable benefits to perform robustly in the low signal-to-noise ratio region.

Lihang Liu, Shanzhuo Zhang, Donglong He et al.

Protein-ligand structure prediction is an essential task in drug discovery, predicting the binding interactions between small molecules (ligands) and target proteins (receptors). Recent advances have incorporated deep learning techniques to improve the accuracy of protein-ligand structure prediction. Nevertheless, the experimental validation of docking conformations remains costly, it raises concerns regarding the generalizability of these deep learning-based methods due to the limited training data. In this work, we show that by pre-training on a large-scale docking conformation generated by traditional physics-based docking tools and then fine-tuning with a limited set of experimentally validated receptor-ligand complexes, we can obtain a protein-ligand structure prediction model with outstanding performance. Specifically, this process involved the generation of 100 million docking conformations for protein-ligand pairings, an endeavor consuming roughly 1 million CPU core days. The proposed model, HelixDock, aims to acquire the physical knowledge encapsulated by the physics-based docking tools during the pre-training phase. HelixDock has been rigorously benchmarked against both physics-based and deep learning-based baselines, demonstrating its exceptional precision and robust transferability in predicting binding confirmation. In addition, our investigation reveals the scaling laws governing pre-trained protein-ligand structure prediction models, indicating a consistent enhancement in performance with increases in model parameters and the volume of pre-training data. Moreover, we applied HelixDock to several drug discovery-related tasks to validate its practical utility. HelixDock demonstrates outstanding capabilities on both cross-docking and structure-based virtual screening benchmarks.

Zhengtong Li, Chentao Yue, Jiafu Hao et al.

Traditional wireless communications rely solely on bit-level channel coding for error correction, without exploiting the inherent linguistic structure of the data source. This paper proposes a large language model (LLM) Viterbi decoder that integrates LLM priors into the Viterbi decoding for text transmission over AWGN channels. The proposed decoder maintains multiple candidate paths during the Viterbi decoding and periodically evaluates path reliabilities using a fine-tuned Byte-level T5 (ByT5) language model. By combining channel reliability metrics with semantic probability from the LLM, it outputs the path that maximizes the joint likelihood of channel observations and linguistic coherence. Simulations show that our decoder achieves significant performance gains over conventional Viterbi decoding in terms of both block error rate (BLER) and semantic similarity. For convolutional codes with constraint length 3, it achieves approximately 1.5 dB more coding gain in BLER, with over 50% improvements in semantic similarity. The framework can extend to other structured data sources beyond text.

Jiafu Hao, Chentao Yue, Wanchun Liu et al.

This paper presents a semantic-enhanced receiver framework for transmitting natural language sentences over noisy wireless channels using multiple short block codes. After ASCII encoding, the sentence is divided into segments, each independently encoded with a short block code and transmitted over an AWGN channel. At the receiver, segments are decoded in parallel, followed by a semantic error correction (SEC) model, which reconstructs corrupted segments using language model context. We further propose the semantic list decoding (SLD), which generates multiple candidate reconstructions and selects the best one via weighted Hamming distance, and a semantic confidence-guided HARQ (SHARQ) mechanism that replaces CRC-based error detection with a confidence score, enabling selective segment retransmission without CRC overhead. All modules are designed and trained using bidirectional and auto-regressive transformers (BART). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms conventional capacity-approaching short codes and long codes at the same rate. Specifically, SEC provides approximately 0.4 dB BLER gain over plain short-code transmission, while SLD extends this to 0.8 dB. Compared to transmitting the entire sentence as a single long 5G LDPC codeword, our approach significantly improves semantic fidelity and reduces decoding latency by up to 90\%. SHARQ further provides an additional 1.5 dB gain over conventional HARQ.

Yonghui Li, Wansuo Duan, Hao Li et al.

This study addresses a critical challenge in AI-based weather forecasting by developing an AI-driven optimized ensemble forecast system using Orthogonal Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbations (O-CNOPs). The system bridges the gap between computational efficiency and dynamic consistency in tropical cyclone (TC) forecasting. Unlike conventional ensembles limited by computational costs or AI ensembles constrained by inadequate perturbation methods, O-CNOPs generate dynamically optimized perturbations that capture fast-growing errors of FuXi model while maintaining plausibility. The key innovation lies in producing orthogonal perturbations that respect FuXi nonlinear dynamics, yielding structures reflecting dominant dynamical controls and physically interpretable probabilistic forecasts. Demonstrating superior deterministic and probabilistic skills over the operational Integrated Forecasting System Ensemble Prediction System, this work establishes a new paradigm combining AI computational advantages with rigorous dynamical constraints. Success in TC track forecasting paves the way for reliable ensemble forecasts of other high-impact weather systems, marking a major step toward operational AI-based ensemble forecasting.

Xinyu Chen, Yiran Wang, Gaoyang Pang et al.

Medical Referring Image Segmentation (MRIS) involves segmenting target regions in medical images based on natural language descriptions. While achieving promising results, recent approaches usually involve complex design of multimodal fusion or multi-stage decoders. In this work, we propose NTP-MRISeg, a novel framework that reformulates MRIS as an autoregressive next-token prediction task over a unified multimodal sequence of tokenized image, text, and mask representations. This formulation streamlines model design by eliminating the need for modality-specific fusion and external segmentation models, supports a unified architecture for end-to-end training. It also enables the use of pretrained tokenizers from emerging large-scale multimodal models, enhancing generalization and adaptability. More importantly, to address challenges under this formulation-such as exposure bias, long-tail token distributions, and fine-grained lesion edges-we propose three novel strategies: (1) a Next-k Token Prediction (NkTP) scheme to reduce cumulative prediction errors, (2) Token-level Contrastive Learning (TCL) to enhance boundary sensitivity and mitigate long-tail distribution effects, and (3) a memory-based Hard Error Token (HET) optimization strategy that emphasizes difficult tokens during training. Extensive experiments on the QaTa-COV19 and MosMedData+ datasets demonstrate that NTP-MRISeg achieves new state-of-the-art performance, offering a streamlined and effective alternative to traditional MRIS pipelines.

Chentao Yue, Branka Vucetic, Yonghui Li

We propose a Semantic Ordered Statistics Decoder (sem-OSD), a soft decoder for short linear block codes carrying byte-streamed sources such as natural-language text. Sem-OSD injects a byte-level language-model (LM) prior into ordered statistics decoding (OSD) through a fused bit-level score that combines channel reliability with the LM prior, and uses it for the most-reliable basis (MRB) selection and the codeword candidate scoring. Sem-OSD enumerates two complementary test-error-pattern (TEP) families: a bit-flip family that flips up to $m$ bits, and an LM-driven family of up to $ω$ byte substitutions that reaches error patterns the bit-flip family cannot. The LM prior is computed by a byte-level Transformer fine-tuned for byte-level denoising. Simulation results show that, on AWGN, sem-OSD achieves block error rates (BLERs) below the finite-blocklength normal-approximation bound for uniform sources on both binary BCH$(127,64)$ and shortened RS$(16,8)$ over GF(256), exceeding Fossorier OSD by a $1.5$ dB coding gain. On a Gilbert--Elliott burst-error channel, sem-OSD provides $4$ dB and $1$ dB of more coding gain than Berlekamp--Massey and OSD, respectively.

Xin Hao, Phee Lep Yeoh, Changyang She et al.

This paper proposes a blockchain-secured deep reinforcement learning (BC-DRL) optimization framework for {data management and} resource allocation in decentralized {wireless mobile edge computing (MEC)} networks. In our framework, {we design a low-latency reputation-based proof-of-stake (RPoS) consensus protocol to select highly reliable blockchain-enabled BSs to securely store MEC user requests and prevent data tampering attacks.} {We formulate the MEC resource allocation optimization as a constrained Markov decision process that balances minimum processing latency and denial-of-service (DoS) probability}. {We use the MEC aggregated features as the DRL input to significantly reduce the high-dimensionality input of the remaining service processing time for individual MEC requests. Our designed constrained DRL effectively attains the optimal resource allocations that are adapted to the dynamic DoS requirements. We provide extensive simulation results and analysis to} validate that our BC-DRL framework achieves higher security, reliability, and resource utilization efficiency than benchmark blockchain consensus protocols and {MEC} resource allocation algorithms.

Qinyu Zhang, Liang Xu, Jianhao Huang et al.

Driven by the vision of ubiquitous connectivity and wireless intelligence, the evolution of ultra-dense constellation-based satellite-integrated Internet is underway, now taking preliminary shape. Nevertheless, the entrenched institutional silos and limited, nonrenewable heterogeneous network resources leave current satellite systems struggling to accommodate the escalating demands of next-generation intelligent applications. In this context, the distributed satellite information networks (DSIN), exemplified by the cohesive clustered satellites system, have emerged as an innovative architecture, bridging information gaps across diverse satellite systems, such as communication, navigation, and remote sensing, and establishing a unified, open information network paradigm to support resilient space information services. This survey first provides a profound discussion about innovative network architectures of DSIN, encompassing distributed regenerative satellite network architecture, distributed satellite computing network architecture, and reconfigurable satellite formation flying, to enable flexible and scalable communication, computing and control. The DSIN faces challenges from network heterogeneity, unpredictable channel dynamics, sparse resources, and decentralized collaboration frameworks. To address these issues, a series of enabling technologies is identified, including channel modeling and estimation, cloud-native distributed MIMO cooperation, grant-free massive access, network routing, and the proper combination of all these diversity techniques. Furthermore, to heighten the overall resource efficiency, the cross-layer optimization techniques are further developed to meet upper-layer deterministic, adaptive and secure information services requirements. In addition, emerging research directions and new opportunities are highlighted on the way to achieving the DSIN vision.

Xin Hao, Phee Lep Yeoh, Yuhong Liu et al.

This paper designs a graph neural network (GNN) to improve bandwidth allocations for multiple legitimate wireless users transmitting to a base station in the presence of an eavesdropper. To improve the privacy and prevent eavesdropping attacks, we propose a user scheduling algorithm to schedule users satisfying an instantaneous minimum secrecy rate constraint. Based on this, we optimize the bandwidth allocations with three algorithms namely iterative search (IvS), GNN-based supervised learning (GNN-SL), and GNN-based unsupervised learning (GNN-USL). We present a computational complexity analysis which shows that GNN-SL and GNN-USL can be more efficient compared to IvS which is limited by the bandwidth block size. Numerical simulation results highlight that our proposed GNN-based resource allocations can achieve a comparable sum secrecy rate compared to IvS with significantly lower computational complexity. Furthermore, we observe that the GNN approach is more robust to uncertainties in the eavesdropper's channel state information, especially compared with the best channel allocation scheme.

Gaoyang Pang, Wanchun Liu, Dusit Niyato et al.

Wireless Networked Control Systems (WNCSs) are essential to Industry 4.0, enabling flexible control in applications, such as drone swarms and autonomous robots. The interdependence between communication and control requires integrated design, but traditional methods treat them separately, leading to inefficiencies. Current codesign approaches often rely on simplified models, focusing on single-loop or independent multi-loop systems. However, large-scale WNCSs face unique challenges, including coupled control loops, time-correlated wireless channels, trade-offs between sensing and control transmissions, and significant computational complexity. To address these challenges, we propose a practical WNCS model that captures correlated dynamics among multiple control loops with spatially distributed sensors and actuators sharing limited wireless resources over multi-state Markov block-fading channels. We formulate the codesign problem as a sequential decision-making task that jointly optimizes scheduling and control inputs across estimation, control, and communication domains. To solve this problem, we develop a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithm that efficiently handles the hybrid action space, captures communication-control correlations, and ensures robust training despite sparse cross-domain variables and floating control inputs. Extensive simulations show that the proposed DRL approach outperforms benchmarks and solves the large-scale WNCS codesign problem, providing a scalable solution for industrial automation.

Kou Tian, Chentao Yue, Changyang She et al.

This paper presents a novel auto-encoder based end-to-end channel encoding and decoding. It integrates deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and graph neural networks (GNN) in code design by modeling the generation of code parity-check matrices as a Markov Decision Process (MDP), to optimize key coding performance metrics such as error-rates and code algebraic properties. An edge-weighted GNN (EW-GNN) decoder is proposed, which operates on the Tanner graph with an iterative message-passing structure. Once trained on a single linear block code, the EW-GNN decoder can be directly used to decode other linear block codes of different code lengths and code rates. An iterative joint training of the DRL-based code designer and the EW-GNN decoder is performed to optimize the end-end encoding and decoding process. Simulation results show the proposed auto-encoder significantly surpasses several traditional coding schemes at short block lengths, including low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with the belief propagation (BP) decoding and the maximum-likelihood decoding (MLD), and BCH with BP decoding, offering superior error-correction capabilities while maintaining low decoding complexity.

Gaoyang Pang, Wanchun Liu, Dusit Niyato et al.

Wireless Human-Machine Collaboration (WHMC) represents a critical advancement for Industry 5.0, enabling seamless interaction between humans and machines across geographically distributed systems. As the WHMC systems become increasingly important for achieving complex collaborative control tasks, ensuring their stability is essential for practical deployment and long-term operation. Stability analysis certifies how the closed-loop system will behave under model randomness, which is essential for systems operating with wireless communications. However, the fundamental stability analysis of the WHMC systems remains an unexplored challenge due to the intricate interplay between the stochastic nature of wireless communications, dynamic human operations, and the inherent complexities of control system dynamics. This paper establishes a fundamental WHMC model incorporating dual wireless loops for machine and human control. Our framework accounts for practical factors such as short-packet transmissions, fading channels, and advanced HARQ schemes. We model human control lag as a Markov process, which is crucial for capturing the stochastic nature of human interactions. Building on this model, we propose a stochastic cycle-cost-based approach to derive a stability condition for the WHMC system, expressed in terms of wireless channel statistics, human dynamics, and control parameters. Our findings are validated through extensive numerical simulations and a proof-of-concept experiment, where we developed and tested a novel wireless collaborative cart-pole control system. The results confirm the effectiveness of our approach and provide a robust framework for future research on WHMC systems in more complex environments.

Xin Hao, Changyang She, Phee Lep Yeoh et al.

In this paper, we develop a deep learning-based bandwidth allocation policy that is: 1) scalable with the number of users and 2) transferable to different communication scenarios, such as non-stationary wireless channels, different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, and dynamically available resources. To support scalability, the bandwidth allocation policy is represented by a graph neural network (GNN), with which the number of training parameters does not change with the number of users. To enable the generalization of the GNN, we develop a hybrid-task meta-learning (HML) algorithm that trains the initial parameters of the GNN with different communication scenarios during meta-training. Next, during meta-testing, a few samples are used to fine-tune the GNN with unseen communication scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that our HML approach can improve the initial performance by 8.79%, and sample efficiency by 73%, compared with existing benchmarks. After fine-tuning, our near-optimal GNN-based policy can achieve close to the same reward with much lower inference complexity compared to the optimal policy obtained using iterative optimization. Numerical results validate that our HML can reduce the computation time by approximately 200 to 2000 times than the optimal iterative algorithm.

Jiazheng Chen, Wanchun Liu, Daniel Quevedo et al.

For cyber-physical systems in the 6G era, semantic communications connecting distributed devices for dynamic control and remote state estimation are required to guarantee application-level performance, not merely focus on communication-centric performance. Semantics here is a measure of the usefulness of information transmissions. Semantic-aware transmission scheduling of a large system often involves a large decision-making space, and the optimal policy cannot be obtained by existing algorithms effectively. In this paper, we first investigate the fundamental properties of the optimal semantic-aware scheduling policy and then develop advanced deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms by leveraging the theoretical guidelines. Our numerical results show that the proposed algorithms can substantially reduce training time and enhance training performance compared to benchmark algorithms.

Gaoyang Pang, Kang Huang, Daniel E. Quevedo et al.

We consider a joint uplink and downlink scheduling problem of a fully distributed wireless networked control system (WNCS) with a limited number of frequency channels. Using elements of stochastic systems theory, we derive a sufficient stability condition of the WNCS, which is stated in terms of both the control and communication system parameters. Once the condition is satisfied, there exists a stationary and deterministic scheduling policy that can stabilize all plants of the WNCS. By analyzing and representing the per-step cost function of the WNCS in terms of a finite-length countable vector state, we formulate the optimal transmission scheduling problem into a Markov decision process and develop a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based framework for solving it. To tackle the challenges of a large action space in DRL, we propose novel action space reduction and action embedding methods for the DRL framework that can be applied to various algorithms, including Deep Q-Network (DQN), Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), and Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3). Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms benchmark policies.

Changyang She, Chengjian Sun, Zhouyou Gu et al.

As one of the key communication scenarios in the 5th and also the 6th generation (6G) of mobile communication networks, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) will be central for the development of various emerging mission-critical applications. State-of-the-art mobile communication systems do not fulfill the end-to-end delay and overall reliability requirements of URLLC. In particular, a holistic framework that takes into account latency, reliability, availability, scalability, and decision making under uncertainty is lacking. Driven by recent breakthroughs in deep neural networks, deep learning algorithms have been considered as promising ways of developing enabling technologies for URLLC in future 6G networks. This tutorial illustrates how domain knowledge (models, analytical tools, and optimization frameworks) of communications and networking can be integrated into different kinds of deep learning algorithms for URLLC. We first provide some background of URLLC and review promising network architectures and deep learning frameworks for 6G. To better illustrate how to improve learning algorithms with domain knowledge, we revisit model-based analytical tools and cross-layer optimization frameworks for URLLC. Following that, we examine the potential of applying supervised/unsupervised deep learning and deep reinforcement learning in URLLC and summarize related open problems. Finally, we provide simulation and experimental results to validate the effectiveness of different learning algorithms and discuss future directions.

Yuxin Lu, Peng Cheng, Zhuo Chen et al.

Envisioned as a promising component of the future wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks, the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique can support massive connectivity with a significantly increased spectral efficiency. Cooperative NOMA is able to further improve the communication reliability of users under poor channel conditions. However, the conventional system design suffers from several inherent limitations and is not optimized from the bit error rate (BER) perspective. In this paper, we develop a novel deep cooperative NOMA scheme, drawing upon the recent advances in deep learning (DL). We develop a novel hybrid-cascaded deep neural network (DNN) architecture such that the entire system can be optimized in a holistic manner. On this basis, we construct multiple loss functions to quantify the BER performance and propose a novel multi-task oriented two-stage training method to solve the end-to-end training problem in a self-supervised manner. The learning mechanism of each DNN module is then analyzed based on information theory, offering insights into the proposed DNN architecture and its corresponding training method. We also adapt the proposed scheme to handle the power allocation (PA) mismatch between training and inference and incorporate it with channel coding to combat signal deterioration. Simulation results verify its advantages over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and the conventional cooperative NOMA scheme in various scenarios.

Rui Dong, Changyang She, Wibowo Hardjawana et al.

To accommodate diverse Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements in the 5th generation cellular networks, base stations need real-time optimization of radio resources in time-varying network conditions. This brings high computing overheads and long processing delays. In this work, we develop a deep learning framework to approximate the optimal resource allocation policy that minimizes the total power consumption of a base station by optimizing bandwidth and transmit power allocation. We find that a fully-connected neural network (NN) cannot fully guarantee the QoS requirements due to the approximation errors and quantization errors of the numbers of subcarriers. To tackle this problem, we propose a cascaded structure of NNs, where the first NN approximates the optimal bandwidth allocation, and the second NN outputs the transmit power required to satisfy the QoS requirement with given bandwidth allocation. Considering that the distribution of wireless channels and the types of services in the wireless networks are non-stationary, we apply deep transfer learning to update NNs in non-stationary wireless networks. Simulation results validate that the cascaded NNs outperform the fully connected NN in terms of QoS guarantee. In addition, deep transfer learning can reduce the number of training samples required to train the NNs remarkably.

Changyang She, Rui Dong, Zhouyou Gu et al.

In the future 6th generation networks, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) will lay the foundation for emerging mission-critical applications that have stringent requirements on end-to-end delay and reliability. Existing works on URLLC are mainly based on theoretical models and assumptions. The model-based solutions provide useful insights, but cannot be directly implemented in practice. In this article, we first summarize how to apply data-driven supervised deep learning and deep reinforcement learning in URLLC, and discuss some open problems of these methods. To address these open problems, we develop a multi-level architecture that enables device intelligence, edge intelligence, and cloud intelligence for URLLC. The basic idea is to merge theoretical models and real-world data in analyzing the latency and reliability and training deep neural networks (DNNs). Deep transfer learning is adopted in the architecture to fine-tune the pre-trained DNNs in non-stationary networks. Further considering that the computing capacity at each user and each mobile edge computing server is limited, federated learning is applied to improve the learning efficiency. Finally, we provide some experimental and simulation results and discuss some future directions.

Yao Xue, Siming Liu, Yonghui Li et al.

Crowd scene analysis receives growing attention due to its wide applications. Grasping the accurate crowd location (rather than merely crowd count) is important for spatially identifying high-risk regions in congested scenes. In this paper, we propose a Compressed Sensing based Output Encoding (CSOE) scheme, which casts detecting pixel coordinates of small objects into a task of signal regression in encoding signal space. CSOE helps to boost localization performance in circumstances where targets are highly crowded without huge scale variation. In addition, proper receptive field sizes are crucial for crowd analysis due to human size variations. We create Multiple Dilated Convolution Branches (MDCB) that offers a set of different receptive field sizes, to improve localization accuracy when objects sizes change drastically in an image. Also, we develop an Adaptive Receptive Field Weighting (ARFW) module, which further deals with scale variation issue by adaptively emphasizing informative channels that have proper receptive field size. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which achieves state-of-the-art performance across four mainstream datasets, especially achieves excellent results in highly crowded scenes. More importantly, experiments support our insights that it is crucial to tackle target size variation issue in crowd analysis task, and casting crowd localization as regression in encoding signal space is quite effective for crowd analysis.

Zhifang Gu, He Chen, Pingping Xu et al.

Achieving ultra-reliable, low-latency and secure communications is essential for realizing the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Non-coherent massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) has recently been proposed as a promising methodology to fulfill ultra-reliable and low-latency requirements. In addition, physical layer authentication (PLA) technology is particularly suitable for IIoT communications thanks to its low-latency attribute. A PLA method for non-coherent massive single-input multiple-output (SIMO) IIoT communication systems is proposed in this paper. Specifically, we first determine the optimal embedding of the authentication information (tag) in the message information. We then optimize the power allocation between message and tag signal to characterize the trade-off between message and tag error performance. Numerical results show that the proposed PLA is more accurate then traditional methods adopting the uniform tag when the communication reliability remains at the same level. The proposed PLA method can be effectively applied to the non-coherent system.

Rui Zhang, Peng Cheng, Zhuo Chen et al.

Multi-parameter cognition in a cognitive radio network (CRN) provides a more thorough understanding of the radio environments, and could potentially lead to far more intelligent and efficient spectrum usage for a secondary user. In this paper, we investigate the multi-parameter cognition problem for a CRN where the primary transmitter (PT) radiates multiple transmit power levels, and propose a learning-based two-stage spectrum sharing strategy. We first propose a data-driven/machine learning based multi-level spectrum sensing scheme, including the spectrum learning (Stage I) and prediction (the first part in Stage II). This fully blind sensing scheme does not require any prior knowledge of the PT power characteristics. Then, based on a novel normalized power level alignment metric, we propose two prediction-transmission structures, namely periodic and non-periodic, for spectrum access (the second part in Stage II), which enable the secondary transmitter (ST) to closely follow the PT power level variation. The periodic structure features a fixed prediction interval, while the non-periodic one dynamically determines the interval with a proposed reinforcement learning algorithm to further improve the alignment metric. Finally, we extend the prediction-transmission structure to an online scenario, where the number of PT power levels might change as a consequence of PT adapting to the environment fluctuation or quality of service variation. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in various scenarios.

Rui Dong, Changyang She, Wibowo Hardjawana et al.

In this work, we consider a mobile edge computing system with both ultra-reliable and low-latency communications services and delay tolerant services. We aim to minimize the normalized energy consumption, defined as the energy consumption per bit, by optimizing user association, resource allocation, and offloading probabilities subject to the quality-of-service requirements. The user association is managed by the mobility management entity (MME), while resource allocation and offloading probabilities are determined by each access point (AP). We propose a deep learning (DL) architecture, where a digital twin of the real network environment is used to train the DL algorithm off-line at a central server. From the pre-trained deep neural network (DNN), the MME can obtain user association scheme in a real-time manner. Considering that real networks are not static, the digital twin monitors the variation of real networks and updates the DNN accordingly. For a given user association scheme, we propose an optimization algorithm to find the optimal resource allocation and offloading probabilities at each AP. Simulation results show that our method can achieve lower normalized energy consumption with less computation complexity compared with an existing method and approach to the performance of the global optimal solution.