Communications system design has been traditionally guided by task-agnostic principles, which aim at efficiently transmitting as many correct bits as possible through a given channel. However, in the era of cyber-physical systems, the effectiveness of communications is not dictated simply by the bit rate, but most importantly by the efficient completion of the task in hand, e.g., controlling remotely a robot, automating a production line or collaboratively sensing through a drone swarm. In parallel, it is projected that by 2023, half of the worldwide network connections will be among machines rather than humans. In this context, it is crucial to establish a new paradigm for designing communications strategies for multi-agent cyber-physical systems. This is a daunting task, since it requires a combination of principles from information, communication, control theories and computer science in order to formalize a general framework for task-oriented communication design. In this direction, this paper reviews and structures the relevant theoretical work across a wide range of scientific communities. Subsequently, it proposes a general conceptual framework for task-oriented communication design, along with its specializations according to the targeted use case. Furthermore, it provides a survey of relevant contributions in dominant applications, such as industrial internet of things, multi-UAV systems, tactile internet, autonomous vehicles, distributed learning systems, smart manufacturing plants and 5G and beyond self-organizing networks. Finally, it highlights the most important open research topics from both the theoretical framework and application points of view.
Aligning Task- and Reconstruction-Oriented Communications for Edge Intelligence
School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学计算科学学院）；University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学詹姆斯·瓦特工程学院）；School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney（悉尼大学电气与信息工程学院）
Beyond Transmitting Bits: Context, Semantics, and Task-Oriented Communications
Imperial College London（帝国理工学院）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Amazon（亚马逊）；Virginia Tech（弗吉尼亚理工学院）；Zhejiang Lab（之江实验室）；Zhejiang University（浙江大学）；The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；Yonsei University（延世大学）
