Heterogeneity-Aware Belief Synchronization for Semantic Communication in AI-Native 6G Networks

Abstract

6G networks will not be serving as communication infrastructures only; rather, they are expected to evolve into intelligent systems, where thousands of autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents are interconnected. The agents are deployed across a wide range of platforms including low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, high-altitude platforms (HAPs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), edge servers, and terrestrial devices. These agents continuously observe their environment and exchange information. Semantic communication provides an efficient mechanism for exchanging meaningful information instead of raw data. However, its effectiveness depends on the communicating agents having sufficiently aligned beliefs to correctly interpret and decode the transmitted messages. This assumption becomes difficult to satisfy in the 6G network where heterogeneous AI models operate under diverse computational constraints and continuously acquire different knowledge from their local environments. This article presents a heterogeneity-aware belief synchronization framework for 6G AI-native networks. It uses latent translation models deployed on multi-access edge computing (MEC) servers. These models translate belief updates from one agent to agent-specific knowledge without requiring joint training and a homogeneous architecture of models. By exchanging compact belief updates through a latent translation model only when necessary, the framework preserves privacy, reduces synchronization cost, and minimizes local knowledge drift. We validate the framework through a case study on a multi-layered terrestrial/non-terrestrial network. Results demonstrate that it maintains low synchronization cost, measured by the number of parameters transmitted, and low belief alignment error across the heterogeneous agents in the case study.