Lightweight Vision Model-based Multi-user Semantic Communication Systems

Abstract: Semantic Communication (SemCom) is a promising new paradigm for next-generation communication systems, emphasizing the transmission of core information, particularly in environments characterized by uncertainty, noise, and bandwidth constraints. However, existing image SemCom systems face several challenges, such as inefficient knowledge base construction, insufficient semantic encoding, and lack of multi-user semantic sharing. To address these issues, we propose a Lightweight Vision Model-based Multi-user Semantic Communication System (LVM-MSC). First, we construct a Lightweight Knowledge Base (LKB) based on the fast Segment Anything Model (SAM). LKB incorporates the extensive image knowledge of the SAM model while significantly reducing the number of parameters through its convolutional architecture. Next, we design an Efficient Semantic Codec (ESC) based on the Masked AutoEncoder (MAE) architecture. ESC enhances semantic compression at both the pixel and semantic levels and implements lightweight semantic decoding tailored for user devices. Furthermore, we propose a Multi-user Semantic Sharing (MSS) transmission for the multi-user SemCom. By calculating the similarity of semantic information among different users in the sharing semantic space, we unify the transmissions of similar semantic information through broadcasting, further improving the transmission efficiency. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed LVM-MSC system.