A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance

Semantic communication is envisioned as a promising solution for tackling the data transmission challenges in future wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a novel semantic importance-enhanced multi-hop semantic communication (SIMSC) framework that integrates semantic communicatio...

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Main Authors: Xin Huang, Chao Wang, Xuming Tian, Zuxing Li, Cong Zhao, Ming Xiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11098835/
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author Xin Huang
Chao Wang
Xuming Tian
Zuxing Li
Cong Zhao
Ming Xiao
author_facet Xin Huang
Chao Wang
Xuming Tian
Zuxing Li
Cong Zhao
Ming Xiao
author_sort Xin Huang
collection DOAJ
description Semantic communication is envisioned as a promising solution for tackling the data transmission challenges in future wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a novel semantic importance-enhanced multi-hop semantic communication (SIMSC) framework that integrates semantic communication with a map-and-forward (MF) relaying scheme. To enhance transmission reliability, the framework employs a semantic importance (SI) calculation module to aid in training joint source-channel coding (JSCC) with relays, thereby better protecting the delivery of crucial semantic information over wireless channels with long-distance signal propagation. Different from conventional amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) relaying schemes, the proposed MF scheme leverages a deep neural network (DNN) to adaptively transform the received signal, optimizing it for multi-hop transmission. This enhances robustness and flexibility in varying relay conditions. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed SIMSC framework performs notably better than conventional solutions that do not utilize semantic coding or relays. Moreover, the MF relaying scheme outperforms the AF and DF schemes, especially when relay distances vary across hops.
format Article
id doaj-art-1365a44c616e4b76bb62766cb2b06787
institution DOAJ
issn 2169-3536
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Access
spelling doaj-art-1365a44c616e4b76bb62766cb2b067872025-08-20T03:06:44ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-011314068514069310.1109/ACCESS.2025.359334111098835A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic ImportanceXin Huang0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2367-1777Chao Wang1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4548-3697Xuming Tian2https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8863-8573Zuxing Li3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2276-2079Cong Zhao4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1017-9118Ming Xiao5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5407-0835Department of Information and Communication Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Information and Communication Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Information and Communication Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Information and Communication Engineering, College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaKey Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaDivision of Information Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SwedenSemantic communication is envisioned as a promising solution for tackling the data transmission challenges in future wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a novel semantic importance-enhanced multi-hop semantic communication (SIMSC) framework that integrates semantic communication with a map-and-forward (MF) relaying scheme. To enhance transmission reliability, the framework employs a semantic importance (SI) calculation module to aid in training joint source-channel coding (JSCC) with relays, thereby better protecting the delivery of crucial semantic information over wireless channels with long-distance signal propagation. Different from conventional amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) relaying schemes, the proposed MF scheme leverages a deep neural network (DNN) to adaptively transform the received signal, optimizing it for multi-hop transmission. This enhances robustness and flexibility in varying relay conditions. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed SIMSC framework performs notably better than conventional solutions that do not utilize semantic coding or relays. Moreover, the MF relaying scheme outperforms the AF and DF schemes, especially when relay distances vary across hops.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11098835/Semantic communicationmulti-hop communicationsemantic importanceimage classification
spellingShingle Xin Huang
Chao Wang
Xuming Tian
Zuxing Li
Cong Zhao
Ming Xiao
A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
IEEE Access
Semantic communication
multi-hop communication
semantic importance
image classification
title A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
title_full A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
title_fullStr A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
title_full_unstemmed A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
title_short A Multi-Hop Semantic Communication System Enhanced by Semantic Importance
title_sort multi hop semantic communication system enhanced by semantic importance
topic Semantic communication
multi-hop communication
semantic importance
image classification
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11098835/
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AT xinhuang multihopsemanticcommunicationsystemenhancedbysemanticimportance
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