Rate-Splitting Multiple Access for Semantic-Aware Networks: an Age of Incorrect Information Perspective

TL;DR

This paper addresses semantic-aware downlink networks by minimizing AoII through a joint RSMA-based design. It develops a non-convex optimization problem over scheduling, precoding, and power allocation, then transforms it into a convex form via big-$M$ and Successive Convex Approximation within an iterative algorithm. Numerical results show RSMA achieves lower AoII than SDMA, due to its better management of multi-user interference and ability to split rate across common and private streams. The work highlights RSMA’s potential for freshness-aware communications and semantic content delivery in multi-user wireless networks, with practical implications for latency-sensitive and meaning-preserving applications.

Abstract

In this letter, we design a downlink multi-user communication framework based on Rate-Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA) for semantic-aware networks. First, we formulate an optimization problem to obtain the optimal user scheduling, precoding, and power allocation schemes jointly. We consider the metric Age of Incorrect Information (AoII) in the objective function of the formulated problem to maximize the freshness of the overall information to be transmitted. Using big-M and Successive Convex Approximation (SCA) methods, we convert the resulting non-convex problem with conditional objective and constraints into a convex one and propose an iterative algorithm to solve it. By numerical results, we show that RSMA achieves a lower AoII than SDMA owing to its superior performance under multi-user interference.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Number of scheduled users vs. $I$.
• Figure 2: AoII and scheduling performance, $N=4$, $K=3$.
• Figure 3: AoII and scheduling performance, $N=8$, $K=5$.
• Figure 4: AoII and scheduling performance for two different processes, $N=4$, $K=3$, SNR=$15$dB.
• Figure : Proposed Algorithm