Communication 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 bitrate, 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 theory 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 of Industrial Internet of Things, multi-UAV systems, Tactile Internet and Federated Learning. Finally, it highlights the most important open research topics from both framework and application points of view.
翻译:通信系统的设计历来以任务和不可知原则为指导,其目的是通过特定渠道有效传递尽可能多的正确点,然而,在网络-物理系统时代,通信的效力并非仅仅取决于比特率,而最重要的是取决于高效率完成手头的任务,例如遥控机器人、生产线自动化或通过无人机群进行协作遥感。与此同时,预计到2023年,全世界网络连接的一半将是机器而不是人类之间的,在这方面,为设计多代理人网络-物理系统的通信战略建立一个新的范式至关重要,这是一项艰巨的任务,因为它需要将信息、通信、控制理论和计算机科学理论等原则结合起来,以便正式确定面向任务的通信设计总框架。在这一方向上,本文件审查并构建了广泛的科学界的相关理论工作。随后,它提出了面向任务的通信设计的一般概念框架,以及其专业化情况。此外,它提供了对多代理人网络-物理系统相关贡献的开放性调查,以及作为工业-AV最后一个专题的互联网应用,以及作为工业-AV学习最后一个专题的多种互联网应用的开放性研究重点。