A Lightweight Deep Learning Model for Automatic Modulation Classification Using Dual-Path Deep Residual Shrinkage Network

Efficient spectrum utilization is critical for meeting the growing data demands of modern wireless communication networks. Automatic Modulation Classification (AMC) plays a key role in enhancing spectrum efficiency by accurately identifying modulation schemes in received signals—an essential capability for dynamic spectrum allocation and interference mitigation, particularly in cognitive radio (CR) systems. With the increasing deployment of smart edge devices, such as IoT nodes with limited computational and memory resources, there is a pressing need for lightweight AMC models that balance low complexity with high classification accuracy. In this study, we propose a low-complexity, lightweight deep learning (DL) AMC model optimized for resource-constrained edge devices. We introduce a dual-path deep residual shrinkage network (DP-DRSN) with garrote thresholding for effective signal denoising, and we designed a compact hybrid CNN-LSTM architecture comprising only 27,072 training parameters. The proposed model achieved average classification accuracies of 61.20%, 63.78%, and 62.13% on the RML2016.10a, RML2016.10b, and RML2018.01a datasets, respectively, demonstrating a strong balance between model efficiency and classification performance. These results highlight the model’s potential for enabling accurate and efficient AMC on edge devices with limited resources, despite not surpassing state-of-the-art accuracy owing to its deliberate emphasis on computational efficiency.