O-RAN nGRG Workshop
On February 5th, Dr. Emilio Calvanese Strinati will be giving an invited talk at the O-RAN nGRG Workshop: “Secrets of Semantic Communications in the Era of 6G Networked Intelligence”. The workshop is part of the Face-to-Face Meeting of O-RAN ALLIANCE members and participants, taking place in Rome, Italy on February 2-6, 2026.
In this talk, Dr. Strinati will discuss:
- What semantic communications is (and is not)
- Why semantics is a natural fit for open, software-driven RANs
- How semantic layers align with O-RAN intelligence and control loops
- Practical deployment across edge, near-RT RIC, and non-RT RIC
- How to define semantic KPIs that can be measured, trusted, and operationalized
Learn more and register here. O-RAN ALLIANCE member login required.
This event is free to attend for O-RAN ALLIANCE members and participants. If your organization not yet a member, we encourage you to apply for membership in O-RAN ALLIANCE to take part in this and future events.
Join us and benefit from being part of the O-RAN community!
For membership information, visit: www.o-ran.org/membership.
Secrets of Semantic Communications
Abstract
6G is expected to make artificial intelligence feel less “artificial” by connecting the biological world and machine intelligence more seamlessly, bridging the physical, digital, and cognitive spaces. In parallel, advances in AI will strengthen semantic cognition—how machines understand, reason, and act—pushing networks toward self-optimizing and more autonomous operation.
This invited talk surveys breakthroughs and trends in AI-enabled semantic communications for 6G and beyond. Unlike 5G systems, which focus on transporting raw data reliably without asking whether every bit is useful, semantic communications targets what matters for the receiver’s goal. The guiding principle is: share less while understanding more. By prioritizing relevance and meaning, semantic communications can improve efficiency while helping AI agents make better decisions and reason about cause and effect.
The talk first clarifies what semantic communications is (and is not), introducing goal-oriented transmission, meaning-aware reliability, and shared context. It then explains why semantics matters for open, software-driven radio access networks: as automation increases and data flows grow, semantic methods can reduce unnecessary exchange and make optimization more robust.
We then show how semantic communications layers—semantic representation, meaning-aware transmission, and semantic decision/control—map to existing network intelligence loops. We discuss practical integration points: deploying some functions close to the radio for fast decisions, placing others in near-real-time optimization applications, and reserving long-horizon learning and policy for higher-level orchestration. We also outline what the network must provide to make this deployable: consistent semantic measurements, safe management and updating of learned models, and observability to measure and trust gains.
Finally, we position semantic performance indicators within these loops—what must be computed locally for very fast actions, what can be handled in near-real-time optimization, and what belongs to longer-term analytics and governance. The talk closes with challenges and research directions, drawing insights from 6G-GOALS, 6G-DISAC, and 6G-ARROW.
Bio
Dr. Emilio Calvanese Strinati is Scientific & Innovation Director of Smart Devices, Telecommunications at CEA‑Leti, where he leads future wireless/6G research programs. He received his M.Eng, (2001, Univ. La Sapienza Roma), PhD (2025, Telecom ParisTech, Paris) on telecommunication engineering, he has published over 200 papers and book chapters and co-invented 100+ patents. He was the general chair if EUCNC in 2022 and he has organized 50+ international workshops and special sessions (at EUCNC, Globecom, ICC, VTC, etc.). He has coordinated six European projects: 5G-CHAMPIONS, 5GAllstar, RISE-6G, 6G-GOALS, 6G-DISAC and 6G-ARROW. His current research interests are on AI applied to 5G/6G, RIS, ISAC, Semantic and goal-oriented communications.
