Joint Source-Channel Coding for 6G Communications

In order to provide ultra low-latency and high energy-efficient communication for intelligences,the sixth generation(6G)wireless communication networks need to break out of the dilemma of the depleting gain of the separated optimization paradigm.In this context,this paper provides a comprehensive tutorial that overview how joint source-channel coding(JSCC)can be employed for improving overall system performance.For the purpose,we first introduce the communication requirements and performance metrics for 6G.Then,we provide an overview of the source-channel separation theorem and why it may not hold in practical applications.In addition,we focus on two new JSCC schemes called the double low-density parity-check(LDPC)codes and the double polar codes,respectively,giving their detailed coding and decoding processes and corresponding performance simulations.In a nutshell,this paper constitutes a tutorial on the JSCC scheme tailored to the needs of future 6G communications.

SNR-adaptive deep joint source-channel coding scheme for image semantic transmission with convolutional block attention module

With the development of deep learning(DL),joint source-channel coding(JSCC)solutions for end-to-end transmission have gained a lot of attention.Adaptive deep JSCC schemes support dynamically adjusting the rate according to different channel conditions during transmission,enhancing robustness in dynamic wireless environment.However,most of the existing adaptive JSCC schemes only consider different channel conditions,ignoring the different feature importance in the image processing and transmission.The uniform compression of different features in the image may result in the compromise of critical image details,particularly in low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)scenarios.To address the above issues,in this paper,a dual attention mechanism is introduced and an SNR-adaptive deep JSCC mechanism with a convolutional block attention module(CBAM)is proposed,in which matrix operations are applied to features in spatial and channel dimensions respectively.The proposed solution concatenates the pooling feature with the SNR level and passes it sequentially through the channel attention network and spatial attention network to obtain the importance evaluation result.Experiments show that the proposed solution outperforms other baseline schemes in terms of peak SNR(PSNR)and structural similarity(SSIM),particularly in low SNR scenarios or when dealing with complex image content.

Integrated Joint Source-Channel Symbol-by-Symbol Decoding of Variable-Length Codes Using 3-D MAP Sequence Estimation

Most of multimedia schemes employ variable-length codes （VLCs） like Huffman code as core components in obtaining high compression rates. However VLC methods are very sensitive to channel noise. The goal of this paper is to salvage as many data from the damaged packets as possible for higher audiovisual quality. This paper proposes an integrated joint source-channel decoder （I-JSCD） at a symbol-level using three-dimensional （3-D） trellis representation for first-order Markov sources encoded with VLC source code and convolutional channel code. This method combines source code and channel code state-spaces and bit-lengths to construct a two-dimensional （2-D） state-space, and then develops a 3-D trellis and a maximum a-posterior （MAP） algorithm to estimate the source sequence symbol by symbol. Experiment results demonstrate that our method results in significant improvement in decoding performance, it can salvage at least half of （50%） data in any channel error rate, and can provide additional error resilience to VLC stream like image, audio, video stream over high error rate links.

JOINT SOURCE-CHANNEL DECODING OF HUFFMAN CODES WITH LDPC CODES

In this paper, we present a Joint Source-Channel Decoding algorithm (JSCD) for Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes by modifying the Sum-Product Algorithm (SPA) to account for the source redun-dancy, which results from the neighbouring Huffman coded bits. Simulations demonstrate that in the presence of source redundancy, the proposed algorithm gives better performance than the Separate Source and Channel Decoding algorithm (SSCD).

JOINT ITERATIVE DECODING FOR SIMPLE-ENCODING SYSTEMATIC IRREGULAR-LDPC-BASED CODED COOPERATION IN NON-IDEAL RELAY CHANNEL

In this paper, a new kind of simple-encoding irregular systematic LDPC codes suitable for one-relay coded cooperation is designed, where the proposed joint iterative decoding is effectively performed in the destination which is in accordance with the corresponding joint Tanner graph characterizing two different component LDPC codes used by the source and relay in ideal and non-ideal relay cooperations. The theoretical analysis and simulations show that the coded cooperation scheme obviously outperforms the coded non-cooperation one under the same code rate and decoding complex. The significant performance improvement can be virtually credited to the additional mutual exchange of the extrinsic information resulted by the LDPC code employed by the source and its counterpart used by the relay in both ideal and non-ideal cooperations.

An Adaptive Joint Source/Channel Coding Using Error Correcting Arithmetic Codes

An approximately optimal adaptive arithmetic coding (AC) system using a forbidden symbol (FS) over noisy channels was proposed which allows one to jointly and adaptively design the source decoding and channel correcting in a single process, with superior performance compared with traditional separated techniques. The concept of adaptiveness is applied not only to the source model but also to the amount of coding redundancy. In addition, an improved branch metric computing algorithm and a faster sequential searching algorithm compared with the system proposed by Grangetto were proposed. The proposed system is tested in the case of image transmission over the AWGN channel, and compared with traditional separated system in terms of packet error rate and complexity. Both hard and soft decoding were taken into account.

Joint Source-Channel Decoding Scheme for Image Transmission over Wireless Channel

We improve the iterative decoding algorithm by utilizing the “leaked” residual redundancy at the output of the source encoder without changing the encoder structure for the noisy channel. The experimental results show that using the residual redundancy of the compressed source in channel decoding is an effective method to improve the error correction performance.

Integrated Joint Source-Channel Decoding for H.264 Video Transmission

This paper proposes an integrated joint source-channel decoder （I-JSCD） using Max-Log-MAP method for sources encoded with exp-Golomb codes and convolutional codes, and proposes a system applying this method to decoding the VLC data, e.g. motion vector differences （MVDs）, of H.264 across an AWGN channel. This method combines the source code state-space and the channel code state-space together to construct a joint state-space, develops a 3-D trellis and a maximum a-posterior （MAP） algorithm to estimate the source sequence symbol by symbol, and then uses max-log approximation to simplify the algorithm. Experiments indicate that the proposed system gives significant improvements on peak signal-to-noise ratio （PSNR） （maximum about 15 dB） than a separate scheme. This also leads to a higher visual quality of video stream over a highly noisy channel.

Joint Iterative Decoding for Network-Coding-Based Multisource LDPC-Coded Cooperative MIMO

A network-coding-based multisource LDPC-coded cooperative MIMO scheme is proposed,where multiple sources transmit their messages to the destination with the assistance from a single relay.The relay cooperates with multiple sources simultaneously via network-coding.It avoids the issues of imperfect frequency/timing synchronization and large transmission delay which may be introduced by frequency-division multiple access(FDMA)/code-division multiple access(CDMA)and time-division multiple access(TDMA)manners.The proposed joint″Min-Sum″iterative decoding is effectively carried out in the destination.Such a decoding algorithm agrees with the introduced equivalent joint Tanner graph which can be used to fully characterize LDPC codes employed by the sources and relay.Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation show that the proposed scheme with joint iterative decoding can achieve significant cooperation diversity gain.Furthermore,for the relay,compared with the cascade scheme,the proposed scheme has much lower complexity of LDPC-encoding and is easier to be implemented in the hardware with similar bit error rate(BER)performance.

An adaptive joint source and channel coding scheme for H.264 video multicasting over wireless LAN

This paper proposes an adaptive joint source and channel coding scheme for H.264 video multicast over wireless LAN which takes into account the user topology changes and varying channel conditions of multiple users, and dynamically allocates available bandwidth between source coding and channel coding, with the goal to optimize the overall system performance. In particular, source resilience and error correction are considered jointly in the scheme to achieve the optimal performance. And a channel estimation algorithm based on the average packet loss rate and the variance of packet loss rate is proposed also. Two overall performance criteria for video multicast are investigated and experimental results are presented to show the improvement obtained by the scheme.

NEW ITERATIVE SUPER-TRELLIS DECODING WITH SOURCE A PRIORI INFORMATION FOR VLCS WITH TURBO CODES

A novel Joint Source and Channel Decoding (JSCD) scheme for Variable Length Codes (VLCs) concatenated with turbo codes utilizing a new super-trellis decoding algorithm is presented in this letter. The basic idea of our decoding algorithm is that source a priori information with the form of bit transition probabilities corresponding to the VLC tree can be derived directly from sub-state transitions in new composite-state represented super-trellis. A Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding algorithm for VLC sequence estimations based on the proposed super-trellis is also described. Simu-lation results show that the new iterative decoding scheme can obtain obvious encoding gain especially for Reversible Variable Length Codes (RVLCs),when compared with the classical separated turbo decoding and the previous joint decoding not considering source statistical characteristics.

Joint Source-Channel Bit Allocation Based on Expected End-to-End Distortion Model

An adaptive joint source channel bit allocation method for video communications over error-prone channel is proposed.To protect the bit-streams from the channel bit errors,the rate compatible punctured convolution(RCPC)code is used to produce coding rates varying from 4/5 to 1/2 using the same encoder and the Viterbi decoder.An expected end-to-end distortion model was presented to estimate the distortion introduced in compressed source coding due to quantization and channel bit errors jointly.Based on the proposed end-to-end distortion model,an adaptive joint source-channel bit allocation method was proposed under time-varying error-prone channel conditions.Simulated results show that the proposed methods could utilize the available channel capacity more efficiently and achieve better video quality than the other fixed coding-based bit allocation methods when transmitting over error-prone channels.

A FINE GRANULAR JOINT SOURCE CHANNEL CODING METHOD

An improved FGS (Fine Granular Scalability) coding method is proposed in this letter, which is based on human visual characteristics. This method adjusts FGS coding frame rate according to the evaluation of video sequences so as to improve the coding efficiency and subject perceived quality of reconstructed images. Finally, a fine granular joint source channel coding is proposed based on the source coding method, which not only utilizes the network resources efficiently, but guarantees the reliable transmission of video information.

Joint Distortion Model for Progressive Image Transmission Using Error Correcting Arithmetic Codes

A novel joint source channel distortion model was proposed, which can essentially estimate the average distortion in progressive image transmission. To improve the precision of the model, the redundancy generated by a forbidden symbol in the arithmetic codes is used to distinguish the quantization distortion and the channel distortion, all the coefficients from the first error one to the end of the sequence are set to be a value within the variance range of the coefficients instead of zero, then the error propagation coming from the entropy coding can be essentially estimated, which is disregarded in the most conventional joint source channel coding (JSCC) systems. The precision of the model in terms of average peak-signal-to-noise has been improved about 0.5 dB compared to classical works. An efficient unequal error protection system based on the model is developed, and can be used in the wireless communication systems.

Shear mechanical properties and energy evolution of rock-like samples containing multiple combinations of non-persistent joints

Discontinuities are often considered as important factors responsible for the instability caused by shear failure in engineering rock mass,and energy-driven instability is the root cause of rock failure.However,few studies focus on the energy evolution during the failure process using a three-dimensional(3D)numerical model.In this study,a series of laboratory direct shear tests on rock-like samples is numer-ically simulated using bonded particle models(BPMs)with multiple combinations of discontinuous in the particle flow code(PFC3D),in which the location and size of the particles conform to the uniform distribution.The effects of joint row number and inclination on the stress-strain characteristics and failure mode of rock were studied from the perspective of microcrack growth and energy evolution.The results showed that,when the number of joint rows Nr>1,the shear failure region does not change with the increase of Nr for the type B(2-columnn multiple-row at center)and the type C(2-column multiple-row at edge)as compared to the type A(1-column multiple-row at center)joint models.Notably,joints significantly increase the post-peak energy dissipation but have little effect on the proportion of energy before the peak.Friction consumes most of the energy while kinetic energy accounts for less than 1%of total energy during the shear process.Peak elastic strain energy follows the variation trend of peak shear displacement.The development and accumulation of microcracks directly affect the energy dissipation,and there is a significant linear relationship between the cumulative number of critical microcracks and the critical dissipated energy at the failure,when the dip direction of joints is opposite to the shear direction,more microcracks will be accumulated at the peak time,resulting in more energy dissipation.The results contribute to deeply understanding the shear failure process of non-persistent jointed mass.

Investigation of long-wavelength elastic wave propagation through wet bentonite-filled rock joints

The saturation of the compacted bentonite buffer in the deep geological repository can cause bentonite swelling,intrusion into rock fractures,and erosion.Inevitably,erosion and subsequent bentonite mass loss due to groundwater inflow can aggravate the overall integrity of the engineered barrier system.Therefore,the coupled hydro-mechanical interaction between the buffer and rock during groundwater inflow and bentonite intrusion should be evaluated to guarantee the long-term safety of deep geological disposal.This study investigated the effect of bentonite erosion and intrusion on the elastic wave propagation characteristics in jointed rocks using a quasi-static resonant column test.Jointed rock specimens with different joint conditions(i.e.joint surface saturation and bentonite filling)were prepared using granite rock discs sampled from the Korea Underground Research Tunnel(KURT)and Gyeongju bentonite.The long-wavelength longitudinal and shear wave velocities were measured under different normal stress levels.A Hertzian-type power model was used to fit the wave velocities,and the relationship between the two fitted parameters provided the trend of joint conditions.Numerical simulations using three-dimensional distinct element code(3DEC)were conducted to better understand how the long-wavelength wave propagates through wet bentonite-filled rock joints.

A Joint Source and Channel Video Coding Algorithm for H.223 Based Wireless Channel

Robust video streaming through high error prone wireless channel has attracted much attention. In this paper the authors introduce an effective algorithm by joining the Unequal Error Protection ability of the channel multiplexing protocol H.223 Annex D, and the new H.263++ Annex V Data Partition together. Based on the optimal trade off of these two technologies, the Joint Source and Channel Coding algorithm can result in stronger error resilience. The simulation results have shown its superiority against separate coding mode and some Unequal Error Protection mode under recommended wireless channel error patterns.

基于AI的端到端语义编码传输方案设计

面向6G多样化场景下对高性能和低复杂度的传输需求,通过将AI架构引入无线传输收发方案的联合优化,打破基于模块化物理层设计方法和传统信息论的局限,一种基于AI的端到端语义编码传输方案被提出。首先,为了克服未知衰落信道下无法通过反向传播联合训练发射机的问题,设计了一种基于CGAN的两子网架构及分阶段训练方法,有效消除衰落信道的影响。其次,进一步提出了语义信道联合编码的系统架构,在端到端的联合优化方面具有优势。仿真结果表明,所提方案通过对语义编码和传输的联合优化提升了系统性能,并适用于实际通信中信道未知场景,具备灵活性、智能性和高效性。

Joint resource allocation for MIMO-OFDM video transmission systems with unequal error protection

To improve the performance of MIMO-OFDM video transmission systems on the limitation of wireless bandwidth and transmitting power,we propose an adaptive joint resource allocation algorithm with unequal error protection(UEP) based on joint source-channel coding(JSCC) according to H.264 video compression standard and RCPT channel coding.According to different thresholds of the average SNR of subchannels,the algorithm dynamically allocates the source coding parameters of original video data and the channel coding parameters of RCPT,which realizes UEP for the compressed video data of different importance.Through the bit and power allocation based on MQAM modulation and the subspace allocation based on beamforming technology for different subcarriers,an adaptive joint resource allocation making full use of space-frequency domain resources have been realized.The simulation results indicate that the algorithm improves the adaptability of video transmission systems in different wireless environments and the quality of video retrieval.