5G PRS-Based Sensing: A Sensing Reference Signal Approach for Joint Sensing and Communication System

The emerging joint sensing and communication (JSC) technology is expected to support new applications and services, such as autonomous driving and extended reality (XR), in the future wireless communication systems. Pilot (or reference) signals in wireless communications usually have good passive detection performance, strong anti-noise capability and good auto-correlation characteristics, hence they bear the potential for applying in radar sensing. In this paper, we investigate how to apply the positioning reference signal (PRS) of the 5th generation (5G) mobile communications in radar sensing. This approach has the unique benefit of compatibility with the most advanced mobile communication system available so far. Thus, the PRS can be regarded as a sensing reference signal to simultaneously realize the functions of radar sensing, communication and positioning in a convenient manner. Firstly, we propose a PRS based radar sensing scheme and analyze its range and velocity estimation performance, based on which we propose a method that improves the accuracy of velocity estimation by using multiple frames. Furthermore, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the range and velocity estimation for PRS based radar sensing and the CRLB of the range estimation for PRS based positioning are derived. Our analysis and simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of PRS over other pilot signals in radar sensing. Finally, some suggestions for the future 5G-Advanced and 6th generation (6G) frame structure design containing the sensing reference signal are derived based on our study

Carrier Aggregation Enabled Integrated Sensing and Communication Signal Design and Processing

The future mobile communication systems will support intelligent applications such as Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and Extended Reality (XR). Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is regarded as one of the key technologies satisfying the high data rate communication and highly accurate sensing for these intelligent applications in future mobile communication systems. With the explosive growth of wireless devices and services, the shortage of spectrum resources leads to the fragmentation of available frequency bands for ISAC systems, which degrades sensing performance. Facing the above challenges, this paper proposes a Carrier Aggregation (CA)-based ISAC signal aggregating high and low-frequency bands to improve the sensing performance, where the CA-based ISAC signal can use four different aggregated pilot structures for sensing. Then, an ISAC signal processing algorithm with Compressed Sensing (CS) is proposed and the Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm (FISTA) is used to solve the reconfiguration convex optimization problem. Finally, the Cram'er-Rao Lower Bounds (CRLBs) are derived for the CA-based ISAC signal. Simulation results show that CA efficiently improves the accuracy of range and velocity estimation

ICI-aware parameter estimation for MIMO-OFDM radar via APES spatial filtering

We propose a novel three-stage delay-Doppler-angle estimation algorithm for a MIMO-OFDM radar in the presence of inter-carrier interference (ICI). First, leveraging the observation that spatial covariance matrix is independent of target delays and Dopplers, we perform angle estimation via the MUSIC algorithm. For each estimated angle, we next formulate the radar delay-Doppler estimation as a joint carrier frequency offset (CFO) and channel estimation problem via an APES (amplitude and phase estimation) spatial filtering approach by transforming the delay-Doppler parameterized radar channel into an unstructured form. In the final stage, delay and Doppler of each target can be recovered from target-specific channel estimates over time and frequency. Simulation results illustrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in high-mobility scenarios

Joint radar-communication waveform designs using signals from multiplexed users

Joint radar-communication designs are exploited in applications where radar and communications systems share the same frequency band or when both radar sensing and information communication functions are required in the same system. Finding a waveform that is suitable for both radar and communication is challenging due to the difference between radar and communication operations. In this paper, we propose a new method of designing dual-functional waveforms for both radar and communication using signals from multiplexed communications users. Specifically, signals from different communications users multiplexed in the time, code or frequency domains across different data bits are linearly combined to generate an overall radar waveform. Three typical radar waveforms are considered. The coefficients of the linear combination are optimized to minimize the mean squared error with or without a constraint on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the communications signals. Numerical results show that the optimization without SNR constraint can almost perfectly approximate the radar waveform in all the cases considered, giving good dual-functional waveforms for both radar and communication. Also, among different multiplexing techniques, time division multiple access is the best option to approximate the radar waveform, followed by code division multiple access and orthogonal frequency division multiple access

AFDM vs OTFS: A Comparative Study of Promising Waveforms for ISAC in Doubly-Dispersive Channels

This white paper aims to briefly describe a proposed article that will provide a thorough comparative study of waveforms designed to exploit the features of doubly-dispersive channels arising in heterogeneous high-mobility scenarios as expected in the beyond fifth generation (B5G) and sixth generation (6G), in relation to their suitability to integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) systems. In particular, the full article will compare the well-established delay-Doppler domain-based orthognal time frequency space (OTFS) and the recently proposed chirp domain-based affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM) waveforms. Both these waveforms are designed based on a full delay- Doppler representation of the time variant (TV) multipath channel, yielding not only robustness and orthogonality of information symbols in high-mobility scenarios, but also a beneficial implication for environment target detection through the inherent capability of estimating the path delay and Doppler shifts, which are standard radar parameters. These modulation schemes are distinct candidates for ISAC in B5G/6G systems, such that a thorough study of their advantages, shortcomings, implications to signal processing, and performance of communication and sensing functions are well in order. In light of the above, a sample of the intended contribution (Special Issue paper) is provided below