No Arabic abstract
As a potential technology feature for 6G wireless networks, the idea of sensing-communication integration requires the system not only to complete reliable multi-user communication but also to achieve accurate environment sensing. In this paper, we consider such a joint communication and sensing (JCAS) scenario, in which multiple users use the sparse code multiple access (SCMA) scheme to communicate with the wireless access point (AP). Part of the user signals are scattered by the environment object and reflected by an intelligent reflective surface (IRS) before they arrive at the AP. We exploit the sparsity of both the structured user signals and the unstructured environment and propose an iterative and incremental joint multi-user communication and environment sensing scheme, in which the two processes, i.e., multi-user information detection and environment object detection, interweave with each other thanks to their intrinsic mutual dependence. The proposed algorithm is sliding-window based and also graph based, which can keep on sensing the environment as long as there are illuminating user signals. The trade-off relationship between the key system parameters is analyzed, and the simulation result validates the convergence and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Joint communication and radar sensing (JCR) represents an emerging research field aiming to integrate the above two functionalities into a single system, sharing a majority of hardware and signal processing modules and, in a typical case, sharing a single transmitted signal. It is recognised as a key approach in significantly improving spectrum efficiency, reducing device size, cost and power consumption, and improving performance thanks to potential close cooperation of the two functions. Advanced signal processing techniques are critical for making the integration efficient, from transmission signal design to receiver processing. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of JCR systems from the signal processing perspective, with a focus on state-of-the-art. A balanced coverage on both transmitter and receiver is provided for three types of JCR systems, communication-centric, radar-centric, and joint design and optimization.
Mobile network is evolving from a communication-only network towards the one with joint communication and radio/radar sensing (JCAS) capabilities, that we call perceptive mobile network (PMN). Radio sensing here refers to information retrieval from received mobile signals for objects of interest in the environment surrounding the radio transceivers. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey for systems and technologies that enable JCAS in PMN, with a focus on works in the last ten years. Starting with reviewing the work on coexisting communication and radar systems, we highlight their limits on addressing the interference problem, and then introduce the JCAS technology. We then set up JCAS in the mobile network context, and envisage its potential applications. We continue to provide a brief review for three types of JCAS systems, with particular attention to their differences on the design philosophy. We then introduce a framework of PMN, including the system platform and infrastructure, three types of sensing operations, and signals usable for sensing, and discuss required system modifications to enable sensing on current communication-only infrastructure. Within the context of PMN, we review stimulating research problems and potential solutions, organized under eight topics: mutual information, waveform optimization, antenna array design, clutter suppression, sensing parameter estimation, pattern analysis, networked sensing under cellular topology, and sensing-assisted secure communication. This paper provides a comprehensive picture for the motivation, methodology, challenges, and research opportunities of realizing PMN. The PMN is expected to provide a ubiquitous radio sensing platform and enable a vast number of novel smart applications.
Beamforming has great potential for joint communication and sensing (JCAS), which is becoming a demanding feature on many emerging platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles and smart cars. Although beamforming has been extensively studied for communication and radar sensing respectively, its application in the joint system is not straightforward due to different beamforming requirements by communication and sensing. In this paper, we propose a novel multibeam framework using steerable analog antenna arrays, which allows seamless integration of communication and sensing. Different to conventional JCAS schemes that support JCAS using a single beam, our framework is based on the key innovation of multibeam technology: providing fixed subbeam for communication and packet-varying scanning subbeam for sensing, simultaneously from a single transmitting array. We provide a system architecture and protocols for the proposed framework, complying well with modern packet communication systems with multicarrier modulation. We also propose low-complexity and effective multibeam design and generation methods, which offer great flexibility in meeting different communication and sensing requirements. We further develop sensing parameter estimation algorithms using conventional digital Fourier transform and 1D compressive sensing techniques, matching well with the multibeam framework. Simulation results are provided and validate the effectiveness of our proposed framework, beamforming design methods and the sensing algorithms.
For massive machine-type communications, centralized control may incur a prohibitively high overhead. Grant-free non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) provides possible solutions, yet poses new challenges for efficient receiver design. In this paper, we develop a joint user identification, channel estimation, and signal detection (JUICESD) algorithm. We divide the whole detection scheme into two modules: slot-wise multi-user detection (SMD) and combined signal and channel estimation (CSCE). SMD is designed to decouple the transmissions of different users by leveraging the approximate message passing (AMP) algorithms, and CSCE is designed to deal with the nonlinear coupling of activity state, channel coefficient and transmit signal of each user separately. To address the problem that the exact calculation of the messages exchanged within CSCE and between the two modules is complicated due to phase ambiguity issues, this paper proposes a rotationally invariant Gaussian mixture (RIGM) model, and develops an efficient JUICESD-RIGM algorithm. JUICESD-RIGM achieves a performance close to JUICESD with a much lower complexity. Capitalizing on the feature of RIGM, we further analyze the performance of JUICESD-RIGM with state evolution techniques. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms achieve a significant performance improvement over the existing alternatives, and the derived state evolution method predicts the system performance accurately.
6G will likely be the first generation of mobile communication that will feature tight integration of localization and sensing with communication functionalities. Among several worldwide initiatives, the Hexa-X flagship project stands out as it brings together 25 key players from adjacent industries and academia, and has among its explicit goals to research fundamentally new radio access technologies and high-resolution localization and sensing. Such features will not only enable novel use cases requiring extreme localization performance, but also provide a means to support and improve communication functionalities. This paper provides an overview of the Hexa-X vision alongside the envisioned use cases. To close the required performance gap of these use cases with respect to 5G, several technical enablers will be discussed, together with the associated research challenges for the coming years.