Hybrid Bit and Semantic Communications
This work addresses the practical deployment limitations of semantic communication for enhancing transmission efficiency in communication systems, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing bit transmission methods.
The authors tackled the challenge of deploying semantic communication in practice by proposing HybridBSC, a hybrid system that inserts encoded semantic information into bit data for transmission over existing digital infrastructure, and experimentally validated it on a software-defined radio platform in a real wireless channel to achieve simultaneous transmission.
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.