A Survey of Modulation Classification Using Deep Learning: Signal Representation and Data Preprocessing

• Published in: IEEE transaction on neural networks and learning systems Vol. 33; no. 12; pp. 7020 - 7038
• Main Authors: Peng, Shengliang, Sun, Shujun, Yao, Yu-Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.12.2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adaptive control; Algorithms; Artificial neural networks; Attention; Avoidance learning; Binary phase shift keying; Classification; Communications systems; Data preprocessing; Deep Learning; Deep learning (DL); Feature extraction; feature representation; image representation; Machine learning; Modulation; modulation classification; Neural networks; Neural Networks, Computer; Preprocessing; Representations; sequence representation; Signal representation; Surveys; Task analysis
• ISSN: 2162-237X; 2162-2388
• DOI: 10.1109/TNNLS.2021.3085433

Modulation classification is one of the key tasks for communications systems monitoring, management, and control for addressing technical issues, including spectrum awareness, adaptive transmissions, and interference avoidance. Recently, deep learning (DL)-based modulation classification has attracted significant attention due to its superiority in feature extraction and classification accuracy. In DL-based modulation classification, one major challenge is to preprocess a received signal and represent it in a proper format before feeding the signal into deep neural networks. This article provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art DL-based modulation classification algorithms, especially the techniques of signal representation and data preprocessing utilized in these algorithms. Since a received signal can be represented by either features, images, sequences, or a combination of them, existing algorithms of DL-based modulation classification can be categorized into four groups and are reviewed accordingly in this article. Furthermore, the advantages as well as disadvantages of each signal representation method are summarized and discussed.