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Shen

Publications and source records attributed to Shen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Communication-Efficient Collaborative LLM Inference over LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites play an essential role in intelligent Earth observation by leveraging artificial intelligence models. However, limited onboard memory and excessive inference delay prevent the practical deployment of large language models (LLMs) on a single satellite. In this paper, we propose a communication-efficient collaborative LLM inference scheme for LEO satellite networks. Specifically, the entire LLM is split into multiple sub-models, with each deployed on a satellite, thereby enabling collaborative LLM inference via exchanging intermediate activations between satellites. The proposed scheme also leverages the pipeline parallelism mechanism that overlaps sub-model inference with intermediate activation transmission, thereby reducing LLM inference delay. An adaptive activation compression scheme is designed to mitigate cumulative errors from multi-stage model splitting while preserving inference accuracy. Furthermore, we formulate the LLM inference delay minimization problem by jointly optimizing model splitting and compression ratios under onboard memory and inference accuracy constraints. The problem is transformed into a shortest-path search problem over a directed acyclic graph that edge weights explicitly quantify the inference delay induced by model splitting and compression strategies, which is solved via a modified A Star-based search algorithm. Extensive simulation results indicate that the proposed solution can reduce inference delay by up to 42% and communication overhead by up to 71% compared to state-of-the-art benchmarks, while maintaining the inference accuracy loss of less than 1%.

cs.DC

Edge General Intelligence Through World Models and Agentic AI: Fundamentals, Solutions, and Challenges

Edge General Intelligence (EGI) represents a transformative evolution of edge computing, where distributed agents possess the capability to perceive, reason, and act autonomously across diverse, dynamic environments. Central to this vision are world models, which act as proactive internal simulators that not only predict but also actively imagine future trajectories, reason under uncertainty, and plan multi-step actions with foresight. This proactive nature allows agents to anticipate potential outcomes and optimize decisions ahead of real-world interactions. While prior works in robotics and gaming have showcased the potential of world models, their integration into the wireless edge for EGI remains underexplored. This survey bridges this gap by offering a comprehensive analysis of how world models can empower agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems at the edge. We first examine the architectural foundations of world models, including latent representation learning, dynamics modeling, and imagination-based planning. Building on these core capabilities, we illustrate their proactive applications across EGI scenarios such as vehicular networks, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks, the Internet of Things (IoT) systems, and network functions virtualization, thereby highlighting how they can enhance optimization under latency, energy, and privacy constraints. We then explore their synergy with foundation models and digital twins, positioning world models as the cognitive backbone of EGI. Finally, we highlight open challenges, such as safety guarantees, efficient training, and constrained deployment, and outline future research directions. This survey provides both a conceptual foundation and a practical roadmap for realizing the next generation of intelligent, autonomous edge systems.

cs.LG

A Lyapunov-Guided Diffusion-Based Reinforcement Learning Approach for UAV-Assisted Vehicular Networks with Delayed CSI Feedback

Low altitude uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to facilitate the development of aerial-ground integrated intelligent transportation systems and unlocking the potential of the emerging low-altitude economy. However, several critical challenges persist, including the dynamic optimization of network resources and UAV trajectories, limited UAV endurance, and imperfect channel state information (CSI). In this paper, we offer new insights into low-altitude economy networking by exploring intelligent UAV-assisted vehicle-to-everything communication strategies aligned with UAV energy efficiency. Particularly, we formulate an optimization problem of joint channel allocation, power control, and flight altitude adjustment in UAV-assisted vehicular networks. Taking CSI feedback delay into account, our objective is to maximize the vehicle-to-UAV communication sum rate while satisfying the UAV's long-term energy constraint. To this end, we first leverage Lyapunov optimization to decompose the original long-term problem into a series of per-slot deterministic subproblems. We then propose a diffusion-based deep deterministic policy gradient (D3PG) algorithm, which innovatively integrates diffusion models to determine optimal channel allocation, power control, and flight altitude adjustment decisions. Through extensive simulations using real-world vehicle mobility traces, we demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed D3PG algorithm compared to existing benchmark solutions.

cs.NI

RadioMamba: Breaking the Accuracy-Efficiency Trade-off in Radio Map Construction via a Hybrid Mamba-UNet

Radio map (RM) has recently attracted much attention since it can provide real-time and accurate spatial channel information for 6G services and applications. However, current deep learning-based methods for RM construction exhibit well known accuracy-efficiency trade-off. In this paper, we introduce RadioMamba, a hybrid Mamba-UNet architecture for RM construction to address the trade-off. Generally, accurate RM construction requires modeling long-range spatial dependencies, reflecting the global nature of wave propagation physics. RadioMamba utilizes a Mamba-Convolutional block where the Mamba branch captures these global dependencies with linear complexity, while a parallel convolutional branch extracts local features. This hybrid design generates feature representations that capture both global context and local detail. Experiments show that RadioMamba achieves higher accuracy than existing methods, including diffusion models, while operating nearly 20 times faster and using only 2.9\% of the model parameters. By improving both accuracy and efficiency, RadioMamba presents a viable approach for real-time intelligent optimization in next generation wireless systems.

eess.SP

Fast AI Model Partition for Split Learning over Edge Networks

Split learning (SL) is a distributed learning paradigm that can enable computation-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) applications by partitioning AI models between mobile devices and edge servers. %fully utilizing distributed computing resources for computation-intensive mobile intelligence applications. However, the model partitioning problem in SL becomes challenging due to the diverse and complex architectures of AI models. In this paper, we formulate an optimal model partitioning problem to minimize training delay in SL. To solve the problem, we represent an arbitrary AI model as a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where the model's layers and inter-layer connections are mapped to vertices and edges, and training delays are captured as edge weights. Then, we propose a general model partitioning algorithm by transforming the problem into a minimum \textit{s-t} cut problem on the DAG. Theoretical analysis shows that the two problems are equivalent, such that the optimal model partition can be obtained via a maximum-flow method. Furthermore, taking AI models with block structures into consideration, we design a low-complexity block-wise model partitioning algorithm to determine the optimal model partition. Specifically, the algorithm simplifies the DAG by abstracting each block (i.e., a repeating component comprising multiple layers in an AI model) into a single vertex. Extensive experimental results on a hardware testbed equipped with NVIDIA Jetson devices demonstrate that the proposed solution can reduce algorithm running time by up to 13.0$\times$ and training delay by up to 38.95\%, compared to state-of-the-art baselines.

cs.LG

Chain-of-Trust: A Progressive Trust Evaluation Framework Enabled by Generative AI

In collaborative systems with complex tasks relying on distributed resources, trust evaluation of potential collaborators has emerged as an effective mechanism for task completion. However, due to the network dynamics and varying information gathering latencies, it is extremely challenging to observe and collect all trust attributes of a collaborating device concurrently for a comprehensive trust assessment. In this paper, a novel progressive trust evaluation framework, namely chain-of-trust, is proposed to make better use of misaligned device attribute data. This framework, designed for effective task completion, divides the trust evaluation process into multiple chained stages based on task decomposition. At each stage, based on the task completion process, the framework only gathers the latest device attribute data relevant to that stage, leading to reduced trust evaluation complexity and overhead. By leveraging advanced in-context learning, few-shot learning, and reasoning capabilities, generative AI is then employed to analyze and interpret the collected data to produce correct evaluation results quickly. Only devices deemed trustworthy at this stage proceed to the next round of trust evaluation. The framework ultimately determines devices that remain trustworthy across all stages. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves high accuracy in trust evaluation.

cs.AI

CSVAR: Enhancing Visual Privacy in Federated Learning via Adaptive Shuffling Against Overfitting

Although federated learning preserves training data within local privacy domains, the aggregated model parameters may still reveal private characteristics. This vulnerability stems from clients' limited training data, which predisposes models to overfitting. Such overfitting enables models to memorize distinctive patterns from training samples, thereby amplifying the success probability of privacy attacks like membership inference. To enhance visual privacy protection in FL, we present CSVAR(Channel-Wise Spatial Image Shuffling with Variance-Guided Adaptive Region Partitioning), a novel image shuffling framework to generate obfuscated images for secure data transmission and each training epoch, addressing both overfitting-induced privacy leaks and raw image transmission risks. CSVAR adopts region-variance as the metric to measure visual privacy sensitivity across image regions. Guided by this, CSVAR adaptively partitions each region into multiple blocks, applying fine-grained partitioning to privacy-sensitive regions with high region-variances for enhancing visual privacy protection and coarse-grained partitioning to privacy-insensitive regions for balancing model utility. In each region, CSVAR then shuffles between blocks in both the spatial domains and chromatic channels to hide visual spatial features and disrupt color distribution. Experimental evaluations conducted on diverse real-world datasets demonstrate that CSVAR is capable of generating visually obfuscated images that exhibit high perceptual ambiguity to human eyes, simultaneously mitigating the effectiveness of adversarial data reconstruction attacks and achieving a good trade-off between visual privacy protection and model utility.

cs.CR

Forewarned is Forearmed: A Survey on Large Language Model-based Agents in Autonomous Cyberattacks

With the continuous evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs), LLM-based agents have advanced beyond passive chatbots to become autonomous cyber entities capable of performing complex tasks, including web browsing, malicious code and deceptive content generation, and decision-making. By significantly reducing the time, expertise, and resources, AI-assisted cyberattacks orchestrated by LLM-based agents have led to a phenomenon termed Cyber Threat Inflation, characterized by a significant reduction in attack costs and a tremendous increase in attack scale. To provide actionable defensive insights, in this survey, we focus on the potential cyber threats posed by LLM-based agents across diverse network systems. Firstly, we present the capabilities of LLM-based cyberattack agents, which include executing autonomous attack strategies, comprising scouting, memory, reasoning, and action, and facilitating collaborative operations with other agents or human operators. Building on these capabilities, we examine common cyberattacks initiated by LLM-based agents and compare their effectiveness across different types of networks, including static, mobile, and infrastructure-free paradigms. Moreover, we analyze threat bottlenecks of LLM-based agents across different network infrastructures and review their defense methods. Due to operational imbalances, existing defense methods are inadequate against autonomous cyberattacks. Finally, we outline future research directions and potential defensive strategies for legacy network systems.

cs.NI

VoI-Driven Joint Optimization of Control and Communication in Vehicular Digital Twin Network

The vision of sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks paves the way for the seamless integration of digital twins into vehicular networks, giving rise to a Vehicular Digital Twin Network (VDTN). The large amount of computing resources as well as the massive amount of spatial-temporal data in Digital Twin (DT) domain can be utilized to enhance the communication and control performance of Internet of Vehicle (IoV) systems. In this article, we first propose the architecture of VDTN, emphasizing key modules that center on functions related to the joint optimization of control and communication. We then delve into the intricacies of the multitimescale decision process inherent in joint optimization in VDTN, specifically investigating the dynamic interplay between control and communication. To facilitate the joint optimization, we define two Value of Information (VoI) concepts rooted in control performance. Subsequently, utilizing VoI as a bridge between control and communication, we introduce a novel joint optimization framework, which involves iterative processing of two Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) modules corresponding to control and communication to derive the optimal policy. Finally, we conduct simulations of the proposed framework applied to a platoon scenario to demonstrate its effectiveness in ensu

cs.NI

Learning Value of Information towards Joint Communication and Control in 6G V2X

As Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) evolves towards future sixth-generation (6G) networks, Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are emerging to become a key application. Leveraging data-driven Machine Learning (ML), especially Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), is expected to significantly enhance CAV decision-making in both vehicle control and V2X communication under uncertainty. These two decision-making processes are closely intertwined, with the value of information (VoI) acting as a crucial bridge between them. In this paper, we introduce Sequential Stochastic Decision Process (SSDP) models to define and assess VoI, demonstrating their application in optimizing communication systems for CAVs. Specifically, we formally define the SSDP model and demonstrate that the MDP model is a special case of it. The SSDP model offers a key advantage by explicitly representing the set of information that can enhance decision-making when available. Furthermore, as current research on VoI remains fragmented, we propose a systematic VoI modeling framework grounded in the MDP, Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Optimal Control theories. We define different categories of VoI and discuss their corresponding estimation methods. Finally, we present a structured approach to leverage the various VoI metrics for optimizing the ``When", ``What", and ``How" to communicate problems. For this purpose, SSDP models are formulated with VoI-associated reward functions derived from VoI-based optimization objectives. While we use a simple vehicle-following control problem to illustrate the proposed methodology, it holds significant potential to facilitate the joint optimization of stochastic, sequential control and communication decisions in a wide range of networked control systems.

cs.LG

Can Knowledge Improve Security? A Coding-Enhanced Jamming Approach for Semantic Communication

As semantic communication (SemCom) attracts growing attention as a novel communication paradigm, ensuring the security of transmitted semantic information over open wireless channels has become a critical issue. However, traditional encryption methods often introduce significant additional communication overhead to maintain reliability, and conventional learning-based secure SemCom methods typically rely on a channel capacity advantage for the legitimate receiver, which is challenging to guarantee in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we propose a coding-enhanced jamming method that eliminates the need to transmit a secret key by utilizing shared knowledge, which may be part of the training set of the SemCom system, between the legitimate receiver and the transmitter. Specifically, we leverage the shared private knowledge base to generate a set of private digital codebooks in advance using neural network (NN)-based encoders. For each transmission, we encode the transmitted data into a digital sequence Y1 and associate Y1 with a sequence randomly picked from the private codebook, denoted as Y2, through superposition coding. Here, Y1 serves as the outer code and Y2 as the inner code. By optimizing the power allocation between the inner and outer codes, the legitimate receiver can reconstruct the transmitted data using successive decoding based on the shared index of Y2, while the eavesdropper's decoding performance is severely degraded, potentially to the point of random guessing. Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves security comparable to state-of-the-art approaches while significantly improving the reconstruction performance of the legitimate receiver by more than 1 dB across varying channel signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and compression ratios.

cs.IT

An Enhanced Dual-Currency VCG Auction Mechanism for Resource Allocation in IoV: A Value of Information Perspective

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is undergoing a transformative evolution, enabled by advancements in future 6G network technologies, to support intelligent, highly reliable, and low-latency vehicular services. However, the enhanced capabilities of loV have heightened the demands for efficient network resource allocation while simultaneously giving rise to diverse vehicular service requirements. For network service providers (NSPs), meeting the customized resource-slicing requirements of vehicle service providers (VSPs) while maximizing social welfare has become a significant challenge. This paper proposes an innovative solution by integrating a mean-field multi-agent reinforcement learning (MFMARL) framework with an enhanced Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) auction mechanism to address the problem of social welfare maximization under the condition of unknown VSP utility functions. The core of this solution is introducing the ``value of information" as a novel monetary metric to estimate the expected benefits of VSPs, thereby ensuring the effective execution of the VCG auction mechanism. MFMARL is employed to optimize resource allocation for social welfare maximization while adapting to the intelligent and dynamic requirements of IoV. The proposed enhanced VCG auction mechanism not only protects the privacy of VSPs but also reduces the likelihood of collusion among VSPs, and it is theoretically proven to be dominant-strategy incentive compatible (DSIC). The simulation results demonstrate that, compared to the VCG mechanism implemented using quantization methods, the proposed mechanism exhibits significant advantages in convergence speed, social welfare maximization, and resistance to collusion, providing new insights into resource allocation in intelligent 6G networks.

cs.GT

RadioDiff-Inverse: Diffusion Enhanced Bayesian Inverse Estimation for ISAC Radio Map Construction

Radio maps (RMs) are essential for environment-aware communication and sensing, providing location-specific wireless channel information. Existing RM construction methods often rely on precise environmental data and base station (BS) locations, which are not always available in dynamic or privacy-sensitive environments. While sparse measurement techniques reduce data collection, the impact of noise in sparse data on RM accuracy is not well understood. This paper addresses these challenges by formulating RM construction as a Bayesian inverse problem under coarse environmental knowledge and noisy sparse measurements. Although maximum a posteriori (MAP) filtering offers an optimal solution, it requires a precise prior distribution of the RM, which is typically unavailable. To solve this, we propose RadioDiff-Inverse, a diffusion-enhanced Bayesian inverse estimation framework that uses an unconditional generative diffusion model to learn the RM prior. This approach not only reconstructs the spatial distribution of wireless channel features but also enables environmental structure perception, such as building outlines, and location of BS just relay on pathloss, through integrated sensing and communication (ISAC). Remarkably, RadioDiff-Inverse is training-free, leveraging a pre-trained model from Imagenet without task-specific fine-tuning, which significantly reduces the training cost of using generative large model in wireless networks. Experimental results demonstrate that RadioDiff-Inverse achieves state-of-the-art performance in accuracy of RM construction and environmental reconstruction, and robustness against noisy sparse sampling.

cs.AI

Hybrid Reinforcement Learning-based Sustainable Multi-User Computation Offloading for Mobile Edge-Quantum Computing

Exploiting quantum computing at the mobile edge holds immense potential for facilitating large-scale network design, processing multimodal data, optimizing resource management, and enhancing network security. In this paper, we propose a pioneering paradigm of mobile edge quantum computing (MEQC) that integrates quantum computing capabilities into classical edge computing servers that are proximate to mobile devices. To conceptualize the MEQC, we first design an MEQC system, where mobile devices can offload classical and quantum computation tasks to edge servers equipped with classical and quantum computers. We then formulate the hybrid classical-quantum computation offloading problem whose goal is to minimize system cost in terms of latency and energy consumption. To solve the offloading problem efficiently, we propose a hybrid discrete-continuous multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm to learn long-term sustainable offloading and partitioning strategies. Finally, numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can reduce the MEQC system cost by up to 30% compared to existing baselines.

cs.NI

A Channel-Triggered Backdoor Attack on Wireless Semantic Image Reconstruction

This paper investigates backdoor attacks in image-oriented semantic communications. The threat of backdoor attacks on symbol reconstruction in semantic communication (SemCom) systems has received limited attention. Previous research on backdoor attacks targeting SemCom symbol reconstruction primarily focuses on input-level triggers, which are impractical in scenarios with strict input constraints. In this paper, we propose a novel channel-triggered backdoor attack (CT-BA) framework that exploits inherent wireless channel characteristics as activation triggers. Our key innovation involves utilizing fundamental channel statistics parameters, specifically channel gain with different fading distributions or channel noise with different power, as potential triggers. This approach enhances stealth by eliminating explicit input manipulation, provides flexibility through trigger selection from diverse channel conditions, and enables automatic activation via natural channel variations without adversary intervention. We extensively evaluate CT-BA across four joint source-channel coding (JSCC) communication system architectures and three benchmark datasets. Simulation results demonstrate that our attack achieves near-perfect attack success rate (ASR) while maintaining effective stealth. Finally, we discuss potential defense mechanisms against such attacks.

cs.CR

Towards Intelligent Transportation with Pedestrians and Vehicles In-the-Loop: A Surveillance Video-Assisted Federated Digital Twin Framework

In intelligent transportation systems (ITSs), incorporating pedestrians and vehicles in-the-loop is crucial for developing realistic and safe traffic management solutions. However, there is falls short of simulating complex real-world ITS scenarios, primarily due to the lack of a digital twin implementation framework for characterizing interactions between pedestrians and vehicles at different locations in different traffic environments. In this article, we propose a surveillance video assisted federated digital twin (SV-FDT) framework to empower ITSs with pedestrians and vehicles in-the-loop. Specifically, SVFDT builds comprehensive pedestrian-vehicle interaction models by leveraging multi-source traffic surveillance videos. Its architecture consists of three layers: (i) the end layer, which collects traffic surveillance videos from multiple sources; (ii) the edge layer, responsible for semantic segmentation-based visual understanding, twin agent-based interaction modeling, and local digital twin system (LDTS) creation in local regions; and (iii) the cloud layer, which integrates LDTSs across different regions to construct a global DT model in realtime. We analyze key design requirements and challenges and present core guidelines for SVFDT's system implementation. A testbed evaluation demonstrates its effectiveness in optimizing traffic management. Comparisons with traditional terminal-server frameworks highlight SV-FDT's advantages in mirroring delays, recognition accuracy, and subjective evaluation. Finally, we identify some open challenges and discuss future research directions.

cs.ET

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Wireless Distributed Networks for 6G

The introduction of intelligent interconnectivity between the physical and human worlds has attracted great attention for future sixth-generation (6G) networks, emphasizing massive capacity, ultra-low latency, and unparalleled reliability. Wireless distributed networks and multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), both of which have evolved from centralized paradigms, are two promising solutions for the great attention. Given their distinct capabilities, such as decentralization and collaborative mechanisms, integrating these two paradigms holds great promise for unleashing the full power of 6G, attracting significant research and development attention. This paper provides a comprehensive study on MARL-assisted wireless distributed networks for 6G. In particular, we introduce the basic mathematical background and evolution of wireless distributed networks and MARL, as well as demonstrate their interrelationships. Subsequently, we analyze different structures of wireless distributed networks from the perspectives of homogeneous and heterogeneous. Furthermore, we introduce the basic concepts of MARL and discuss two typical categories, including model-based and model-free. We then present critical challenges faced by MARL-assisted wireless distributed networks, providing important guidance and insights for actual implementation. We also explore an interplay between MARL-assisted wireless distributed networks and emerging techniques, such as information bottleneck and mirror learning, delivering in-depth analyses and application scenarios. Finally, we outline several compelling research directions for future MARL-assisted wireless distributed networks.

cs.IT

Edge-Assisted Accelerated Cooperative Sensing for CAVs: Task Placement and Resource Allocation

In this paper, we propose a novel road side unit (RSU)-assisted cooperative sensing scheme for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs), with the objective to reduce completion time of sensing tasks. Specifically, LiDAR sensing data of both RSU and CAVs are selectively fused to improve sensing accuracy, and computing resources therein are cooperatively utilized to process tasks in real time. To this end, for each task, we decide whether to compute it at the CAV or at the RSU and allocate resources accordingly. We first formulate a joint task placement and resource allocation problem for minimizing the total task completion time while satisfying sensing accuracy constraint. We then decouple the problem into two subproblems and propose a two-layer algorithm to solve them. The outer layer first makes task placement decision based on the Gibbs sampling theory, while the inner layer makes spectrum and computing resource allocation decisions via greedy-based and convex optimization subroutines, respectively. Simulation results based on the autonomous driving simulator CARLA demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in reducing total task completion time, comparing to benchmark schemes.

cs.NI