Feb 24, 2026J/K move · Enter open · S save
Nadine Muller, Stefano DeRosa, Su Zhang, Chun Lee Huan
Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Oulu
Multi-agent deep learning (MADL), including multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL), distributed/federated training, and graph-structured neural networks, is becoming a unifying framework for decision-making and inference in wireless systems where sensing, communication, and computing are tightly coupled. Recent 5G-Advanced and 6G visions strengthen this coupling through integrated sensing and communication, edge intelligence, open programmable RAN, and non-terrestrial/UAV networking, which create decentralized, partially observed, time-varying, and resource-constrained control problems. This survey synthesizes the state of the art, with emphasis on 2021-2025 research, on MADL for distributed sensing and wireless communications. We present a task-driven taxonomy across (i) learning formulations (Markov games, Dec-POMDPs, CTDE), (ii) neural architectures (GNN-based radio resource management, attention-based policies, hierarchical learning, and over-the-air aggregation), (iii) advanced techniques (federated reinforcement learning, communication-efficient federated deep RL, and serverless edge learning orchestration), and (iv) application domains (MEC offloading with slicing, UAV-enabled heterogeneous networks with power-domain NOMA, intrusion detection in sensor networks, and ISAC-driven perceptive mobile networks). We also provide comparative tables of algorithms, training topologies, and system-level trade-offs in latency, spectral efficiency, energy, privacy, and robustness. Finally, we identify open issues including scalability, non-stationarity, security against poisoning and backdoors, communication overhead, and real-time safety, and outline research directions toward 6G-native sense-communicate-compute-learn systems.