Resource Allocation for Multi-Modal Semantic Communication in UAV Collaborative Networks

Semantic communication is envisioned as a potential communication paradigm enabled by artificial intelligence and is promising to break the Shannon limit for future 6G networks. This paradigm benefits uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) to conserve communication resources and minimize latency by only transmitting task-relevant semantic information. However, resource allocation in the multiple collaborative UAV scenarios remains unexplored, particularly regarding multi-modal semantic communication. To tackle this challenge, this paper investigates a semantic-aware intelligent resource allocation method for multi-UAV-assisted semantic communication networks in the UAV image-sensing task-oriented scenario. A multi-modal semantic communication framework with multi-UAV relay collaboration is developed. At the semantic level, a novel quality of experience (QoE) and the transmission cost model are introduced, based on which a semantic-aware resource allocation problem is formulated, aiming to maximize QoE while minimizing the transmission cost by jointly optimizing the UAV trajectory, the spectrum bandwidth, the transmit power and the number of the transmitted semantic symbols. To deal with optimization challenges involving hybrid variables and coordination among UAVs, a multi-UAV hybrid decision-controlled deep reinforcement learning (DRL) scheme is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme compared with the benchmark schemes in achieving a good balance between the QoE and the transmission cost.