In-Context Learning for Deep Joint Source-Channel Coding Over MIMO Channels

Abstract: LLMs have demonstrated the ability to perform \textit{in-context learning} (ICL), whereby the model performs predictions by directly mapping the query and a few examples from the given task to the output variable. In this paper, we study ICL for deep joint source-channel coding (DeepJSCC) in image transmission over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where an ICL denoiser is employed for MIMO symbol estimation. We first study the transceiver without any hardware impairments and explore the integration of transformer-based ICL with DeepJSCC in both open-loop and closed-loop MIMO systems, depending on the availability of channel state information (CSI) at the transceiver. For both open-loop and closed-loop scenarios, we propose two MIMO transceiver architectures that leverage context information, i.e., pilot sequences and their outputs, as additional inputs, enabling the DeepJSCC encoder, DeepJSCC decoder, and the ICL denoiser to jointly learn encoding, decoding, and estimation strategies tailored to each channel realization. Next, we extend our study to a more challenging scenario where the transceiver suffers from in-phase and quadrature (IQ) imbalance, resulting in nonlinear MIMO estimation. In this case, the context information is also exploited, facilitating joint learning across the DeepJSCC encoder, decoder, and the ICL denoiser under hardware impairments and varying channel conditions. Numerical results demonstrate that the ICL denoiser for MIMO estimation significantly outperforms the conventional least-squares method, with even greater advantages under IQ imbalance. Moreover, the proposed transformer-based ICL framework, integrated with contextual information, achieves significant improvements in end-to-end image reconstruction quality under transceiver IQ imbalance.