Secure Joint Source-Channel Coding of Multimodal Semantic Sources

2026-05-13

AI Summary

This work addresses the problem of secure and efficient transmission of multimodal semantic sources—such as images, audio, and sensor data—over discrete memoryless wiretap channels. It proposes a joint source-channel coding framework that integrates constraints on compression rate, distortion, and perceptual fidelity, while incorporating modality-specific secrecy requirements defined over subsets of modalities. The study extends rate–distortion–perception theory to the realm of multimodal secure communication, revealing that the fundamental secrecy limits are governed jointly by the degree of compression, the secret key rate, and the statistics of the eavesdropper’s channel. Using information-theoretic methods, the authors establish both achievability and converse bounds, characterizing the fundamental trade-offs among transmission rate, fidelity, and security under modality-wise distortion, perception, and subset-based secrecy constraints.

Abstract

We study the problem of secure joint source-channel coding for multimodal semantic sources transmitted over noisy wiretap channels. The source model consists of $m$ modalities (e.g., image, audio, and sensor data), all represented as random variables. The encoder observes independent and identically distributed samples of an arbitrary non-empty subset of modalities. The samples are encoded and transmitted over a discrete memoryless wiretap channel. The legitimate receiver reconstructs all modalities. We extend the rate-distortion-perception problem formulation to multimodal sources. We establish converse and achievability bounds on the fundamental limits of transmission rate, fidelity, and secrecy, under per-modality distortion and perception constraints, and per-subset equivocation constraints. We show that the fundamental limit for secrecy consists of three operationally distinct components: the level of compression, the secret key rate, and the statistics of the wiretap channel.

Problem

• secure joint source-channel coding
• multimodal semantic sources
• wiretap channel
• rate-distortion-perception
• equivocation constraints

Innovation

• multimodal semantic sources
• secure joint source-channel coding
• rate-distortion-perception
• wiretap channel
• equivocation constraints