As many people around the world are still getting used to, benefiting from the improvements, and confronting the shortcomings of 5G cellular, standards organizations and industry cooperatives are busy preparing for 6G. This next generation communications network will add sensing to the communications capabilities. Called integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) or joint communications and sensing (JCAS), the addition of sensing to communications will improve or enable numerous use cases.
The idea is that radio frequency-based sensor technologies, such as radar, can be integrated into radio communications transmissions and provide significant improvements and benefits to the infrastructure and the applications. In addition to the automotive industry with its obvious need for both radar sensing and communication in autonomous vehicles, new use cases will expand in data communication and environmental sensing for surveillance, telemedicine/ehealth, industrial, and drone applications. Unlike previous approaches, with ISAC, the mobile network itself will act as a sensor.
Existing ISAC/JCAS Activities
With the increased complexity of the combination of sensing with communications, several global cooperative and standards organizations are working on how their goals can best be accomplished.
For example, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute or ETSI has an Industry Specification Group (ISG) for ISAC. Among its activities is the definition of a prioritized set of 6G use cases and sensing types with a roadmap for their study and evaluation. They are also studying the privacy and security aspects of sensing data.
Another European Consortium, the KomSens 6G project is developing a new system architecture and investigating two different application scenarios to use radar technology effectively in 6G networks. Monostatic radar measurements locate the transmitter and receiver together. In contrast, multistatic radar measurements employ distributed transmitter and receiver units.
In North America, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), a technology and solutions development organization, has the Next G Alliance (NGA) initiative to advance North American wireless technology leadership over the next decade through private-sector-led efforts. In its 6G Technology Management and Orchestration report, NGA notes that 6G systems are expected to address a wider range of use cases and markets than previous generations through the addition of sensing.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has recently initiated an effort towards IEEE 802.11bf for WLAN sensing. This revised specification will turn Wi-Fi devices into object sensors to perform enhanced sensing operations in frequency bands between 1 and 7.125 GHz and above 45 GHz.
Implementing ISAC
Using a single waveform to perform communication and radar functionalities simultaneously, an ISAC system should be able to optimize spectrum utilization, enable hardware reuse, and reduce power consumption. Current JCAS systems design approaches can be classified into three categories: communication‐centric, radar‐centric, and joint design optimized.
In all design concepts, for a device’s participation in the sensing process, several aspects have been proposed or defined. First, there is the sensing initiator, a station (STA) that triggers a WLAN sensing procedure and requests the sensing results. Next, a sensing responder, a non-initiator STA, participates/replies in the WLAN sensing procedure initiated by a sensing initiator. The STA sensing transmitter transmits packets used for sensing measurements. An STA sensing receiver receives packets sent by a sensing transmitter and performs sensing measurements. Finally, an STA sensing processor processes the sensing measurements and obtains the subsequent sensing results.
The ongoing industry efforts to integrate sensing with communications should provide some extremely interesting solutions.
References
Integrated Sensing and Communications
Integrating Sensing and Communications
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)
6G Technology Management and Orchestration
Introduction to Joint Communications and Sensing (JCAS)
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