Runze Cheng

Runze Cheng, Yao Sun, Dusit Niyato et al.

With the significant advances in AI-generated content (AIGC) and the proliferation of mobile devices, providing high-quality AIGC services via wireless networks is becoming the future direction. However, the primary challenges of AIGC services provisioning in wireless networks lie in unstable channels, limited bandwidth resources, and unevenly distributed computational resources. To this end, this paper proposes a semantic communication (SemCom)-empowered AIGC (SemAIGC) generation and transmission framework, where only semantic information of the content rather than all the binary bits should be generated and transmitted by using SemCom. Specifically, SemAIGC integrates diffusion models within the semantic encoder and decoder to design a workload-adjustable transceiver thereby allowing adjustment of computational resource utilization in edge and local. In addition, a Resource-aware wOrklOad Trade-off (ROOT) scheme is devised to intelligently make workload adaptation decisions for the transceiver, thus efficiently generating, transmitting, and fine-tuning content as per dynamic wireless channel conditions and service requirements. Simulations verify the superiority of our proposed SemAIGC framework in terms of latency and content quality compared to conventional approaches.

Le Xia, Yao Sun, Chengsi Liang et al.

Virtual reality (VR) over wireless is expected to be one of the killer applications in next-generation communication networks. Nevertheless, the huge data volume along with stringent requirements on latency and reliability under limited bandwidth resources makes untethered wireless VR delivery increasingly challenging. Such bottlenecks, therefore, motivate this work to seek the potential of using semantic communication, a new paradigm that promises to significantly ease the resource pressure, for efficient VR delivery. To this end, we propose a novel framework, namely WIreless SEmantic deliveRy for VR (WiserVR), for delivering consecutive 360° video frames to VR users. Specifically, deep learning-based multiple modules are well-devised for the transceiver in WiserVR to realize high-performance feature extraction and semantic recovery. Among them, we dedicatedly develop a concept of semantic location graph and leverage the joint-semantic-channel-coding method with knowledge sharing to not only substantially reduce communication latency, but also to guarantee adequate transmission reliability and resilience under various channel states. Moreover, implementation of WiserVR is presented, followed by corresponding initial simulations for performance evaluation compared with benchmarks. Finally, we discuss several open issues and offer feasible solutions to unlock the full potential of WiserVR.

Runze Cheng, Yao Sun, Ahmad Taha et al.

Semantic communication (SemCom) emerges as a transformative paradigm for traffic-intensive visual data transmission, shifting focus from raw data to meaningful content transmission and relieving the increasing pressure on communication resources. However, to achieve SemCom, challenges are faced in accurate semantic quantization for visual data, robust semantic extraction and reconstruction under diverse tasks and goals, transceiver coordination with effective knowledge utilization, and adaptation to unpredictable wireless communication environments. In this paper, we present a systematic review of SemCom for visual data transmission (SemCom-Vision), wherein an interdisciplinary analysis integrating computer vision (CV) and communication engineering is conducted to provide comprehensive guidelines for the machine learning (ML)-empowered SemCom-Vision design. Specifically, this survey first elucidates the basics and key concepts of SemCom. Then, we introduce a novel classification perspective to categorize existing SemCom-Vision approaches as semantic preservation communication (SPC), semantic expansion communication (SEC), and semantic refinement communication (SRC) based on communication goals interpreted through semantic quantization schemes. Moreover, this survey articulates the ML-based encoder-decoder models and training algorithms for each SemCom-Vision category, followed by knowledge structure and utilization strategies. Finally, we discuss potential SemCom-Vision applications.

Runze Cheng, Zhongao Sun, Ye Zhang et al.

Multimodal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides essential complementary information for analyzing brain tumor subregions. While methods using four common MRI modalities for automatic segmentation have shown success, they often face challenges with missing modalities due to image quality issues, inconsistent protocols, allergic reactions, or cost factors. Thus, developing a segmentation paradigm that handles missing modalities is clinically valuable. A novel single-modality parallel processing network framework based on Hölder divergence and mutual information is introduced. Each modality is independently input into a shared network backbone for parallel processing, preserving unique information. Additionally, a dynamic sharing framework is introduced that adjusts network parameters based on modality availability. A Hölder divergence and mutual information-based loss functions are used for evaluating discrepancies between predictions and labels. Extensive testing on the BraTS 2018 and BraTS 2020 datasets demonstrates that our method outperforms existing techniques in handling missing modalities and validates each component's effectiveness.

Runze Cheng, Xihang Qiu, Ming Li et al.

Multimodal MRI provides critical complementary information for accurate brain tumor segmentation. However, conventional methods struggle when certain modalities are missing due to issues such as image quality, protocol inconsistencies, patient allergies, or financial constraints. To address this, we propose a robust single-modality parallel processing framework that achieves high segmentation accuracy even with incomplete modalities. Leveraging Holder divergence and mutual information, our model maintains modality-specific features while dynamically adjusting network parameters based on the available inputs. By using these divergence- and information-based loss functions, the framework effectively quantifies discrepancies between predictions and ground-truth labels, resulting in consistently accurate segmentation. Extensive evaluations on the BraTS 2018 and BraTS 2020 datasets demonstrate superior performance over existing methods in handling missing modalities.

Runze Cheng, Yao Sun, Lan Zhang et al.

With the significant advances in generative AI (GAI) and the proliferation of mobile devices, providing high-quality AI-generated content (AIGC) services via wireless networks is becoming the future direction. However, the primary challenges of AIGC service delivery in wireless networks lie in unstable channels, limited bandwidth resources, and unevenly distributed computational resources. In this paper, we employ semantic communication (SemCom) in diffusion-based GAI models to propose a Resource-aware wOrkload-adjUstable TransceivEr (ROUTE) for AIGC delivery in dynamic wireless networks. Specifically, to relieve the communication resource bottleneck, SemCom is utilized to prioritize semantic information of the generated content. Then, to improve computational resource utilization in both edge and local and reduce AIGC semantic distortion in transmission, modified diffusion-based models are applied to adjust the computing workload and semantic density in cooperative content generation. Simulations verify the superiority of our proposed ROUTE in terms of latency and content quality compared to conventional AIGC approaches.