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Semantic Communication for the Internet of Things

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2026 | Viewed by 1

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Interests: wireless communications; cellular networks; Internet of Things; network energy efficiency

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Semantic communication redefines how Internet of Things (IoT) devices generate, convey, and interpret information by focusing on the conveyed meaning rather than on traditional bit accuracy. This paradigm promises to alleviate bandwidth scarcity, reduce energy consumption, and enable robust operation in noisy or resource-constrained environments by transmitting only context-relevant semantic features. Recent advances in edge intelligence, knowledge graphs, large language and vision models, and goal-oriented networking create fertile ground for integrating semantics throughout the IoT protocol stack.

For this Special Issue of Sensors, we welcome high-quality original research and comprehensive surveys that advance theory, algorithms, and implementations of semantic communication for IoT applications. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, semantic source and channel coding, ontology-driven sensing, cross-layer semantic metrics, intent-based networking, joint perception–communication design, semantic distortion and reliability analysis, distributed representation learning at the edge, task-oriented federated learning, semantic middleware for heterogeneous sensors, security and privacy of semantic exchange, standardization efforts, and real-world testbeds or datasets. Submissions should articulate clear novelty, methodological rigor, and practical relevance, highlighting how semantic principles enhance efficiency, reliability, or interpretability in IoT systems. The Special Issue aims to bring together researchers from communications, signal processing, artificial intelligence, and domain-specific IoT fields to shape the next generation of meaning-centric networks.

Dr. Samer Lahoud
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • semantic communication
  • Internet of Things
  • edge intelligence
  • semantic source coding
  • intent-based networking
  • ontology-driven sensing
  • federated learning
  • cross-layer metrics
  • task-oriented communication
  • energy-efficient IoT

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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