Toward Wisdom-Evolutionary and Primitive-Concise 6G: A New Paradigm of Semantic Communication Networks

Engineering ›› 2022, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (1) : 60 -73. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2021.11.003

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Received	Accepted	Published
2021-01-04		2022-01-24
Issue Date	Revised Date
2024-06-13

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Abstract

The sixth generation (6G) mobile networks will reshape the world by offering instant, efficient, and intelligent hyper-connectivity, as envisioned by the previously proposed Ubiquitous-X 6G networks. Such hyper-massive and global connectivity will introduce tremendous challenges into the operation and management of 6G networks, calling for revolutionary theories and technological innovations. To this end, we propose a new route to boost network capabilities toward a wisdom-evolutionary and primitive-concise network (WePCN) vision for the Ubiquitous-X 6G network. In particular, we aim to concretize the evolution path toward the WePCN by first conceiving a new semantic representation framework, namely semantic base, and then establishing an intelligent and efficient semantic communication (IE-SC) network architecture. In the IE-SC architecture, a semantic intelligence plane is employed to interconnect the semantic-empowered physical-bearing layer, network protocol layer, and application-intent layer via semantic information flows. The proposed architecture integrates artificial intelligence and network technologies to enable intelligent interactions among various communication objects in 6G. It features a lower bandwidth requirement, less redundancy, and more accurate intent identification. We also present a brief review of recent advances in semantic communications and highlight potential use cases, complemented by a range of open challenges for 6G.

Keywords

6G / Semantic information / Semantic communication / Intelligent communication

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Ping Zhang, Wenjun Xu, Hui Gao, Kai Niu, Xiaodong Xu, Xiaoqi Qin, Caixia Yuan, Zhijin Qin,
Haitao Zhao, Jibo Wei, Fangwei Zhang. Toward Wisdom-Evolutionary and Primitive-Concise 6G: A New Paradigm of Semantic Communication Networks. Engineering, 2022, 8(1): 60-73 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2021.11.003