T12: Semantic Communications: Transmission Beyond Shannon Paradigm

 

Co-organizer: Zhijin Qin,Tsinghua University, China
Co-organizer: Yiping Duan, Tsinghua University, China

 

Abstract: Shannon and Weaver categorized communications into three levels:
• Level A. How accurately can the symbols of communication be transmitted?
• Level B. How precisely do the transmitted symbols convey the desired meaning?
• Level C. How effectively does the received meaning affect conduct in the desired way?

In the past decades, researchers primarily focus on level A communications. With the development of cellular communication systems, the achieved transmission rate has been improved tens of thousands of times and the system capacity is gradually approaching the Shannon limit. Semantic communications have been regarded as a promising direction to improve the system efficiency and reduce the data traffic so that to realize the level B or even level C communications. Semantic communications aim to realize the successful semantic information transmission that is relevant to the transmission task at the receiver. In this tutorial, we first introduce the concept of the semantic communications and a general model of it. We then detail the principles and performance metrics of semantic communications. Afterwards, we present the latest work on deep learning enabled semantic communications for different sources, multi-user semantic communication systems, and multimedia semantic coding. Finally, we identify the research challenges in semantic communications.

 

Co-organizer’s bios:

Zhijin Qin

Bio: Dr. Zhijin Qin is currently an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University, China.. Her research interests include semantic communications and sparse signal processing in wireless communications. She is serving as an area editor of IEEE JSAC Series on Machine learning in Communications and Networks, an editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, and IEEE Communications Letters. Dr Qin has served as the symposium co-chair for IEEE VTC Fall 2019 and IEEE Globecom 2020/2021. She received the 2017 IEEE Globecom Best Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, 2021 IEEE ComSoC SPCC Early Achievement Award, and 2022 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize.

 

Yiping Duan

Bio: Dr. Yiping Duan received the Ph.D. degree from the department of computer science, Xidian University, in 2016. She has been with the department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua university as a postdoctoral fellow from 2017 to 2019. Since April 2019, she has been an assistant research fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University. Her research interests include wireless multimedia communication, machining learning, image and video processing. She has published 45 SCI papers, and also won two Best Paper Awards in top international conferences. In addition, she has been granted 21 invention patents including 2 U. S. patents, and received the gold award of the national invention exhibition. She was awarded the Young Elite Scientist Sponsorship Program by China Association for Science and Technology. Meanwhile, she has undertaken the subproject of the National Key Research and Development Program of China, as well as the project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. As one of the principal investigators, she received the first prize of the China Institute of Communications Science and Technology Invention Award, the first prize of Shanghai Technological Invention Award, and the first prize of Scientific and Technological Progress Award of the Ministry of Education, China.