Complex Neural Network based Joint AoA and AoD Estimation for Bistatic ISAC

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in wireless systems has emerged as a promising paradigm, offering the potential for improved performance, efficient resource utilization, and mutually beneficial interactions between radar sensing and wireless communications, thereby shaping the future of wireless technologies. In this work, we present two novel methods to address the joint angle of arrival and angle of departure estimation problem for bistatic ISAC systems. Our proposed methods consist of a deep learning (DL) solution leveraging complex neural networks, in addition to a parameterized algorithm. By exploiting the estimated channel matrix and incorporating a preprocessing step consisting of a coarse timing estimation, we are able to notably reduce the input size and improve the computational efficiency. In our findings, we emphasize the remarkable potential of our DL-based approach, which demonstrates comparable performance to the parameterized method that explicitly exploits the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) model, while exhibiting significantly lower computational complexity.

A System Level Analysis for Integrated Sensing and Communication

In this work, we provide a system level analysis of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems, where a setup with a mono-static dual-functional radar communication base station is assumed. We derive the ISAC signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) equation that relates communication and radar SNR for different distances. We also derive the ISAC range equation, which can be used for sensing-assisted beamforming applications. Specifically, we show that increasing the frequency and bandwidth is more favorable to the radar application in terms of relative SNR and range while increasing the transmit power is more favorable to communications. Numerical examples reveal that if the range for communication and radar is desired to be in the same order, the ISAC system should operate in mmWave or sub-THz bands, whereas sub-6GHz allows scenarios where the communication range is of orders of magnitude higher than that of radar.

On the Performance Analysis of Zero-Padding OFDM for Monostatic ISAC Systems

This paper considers an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system with monostatic radar functionality using a zero-padding orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ZP-OFDM) downlink transmission. We focus on ISAC's sensing aspect, employing an energy-detection (ED) method. The ZP-OFDM transmission is motivated by the fact that sensing can be performed during the silent periods of the transmitter, thereby avoiding self-interference (SI) cancellation processing of the in-band full duplex operation, which is needed for the cyclic prefix (CP)-OFDM. Additionally, we also show that ZP-OFDM can reject nearby clutter interference. We derive the probability of detection (PD) for the ZP and CP-OFDM systems, allowing useful performance analyses. In particular, we show that the PD expressions lead to an upper bound for the ZP-OFDM transmission, which is useful for selecting the best ZP size for a given system configuration. We also provide an expression that allows range comparison between ZP and CP-OFDM, where we consider a general case of imperfect SI cancellation for the CP-OFDM system. The results show that when the ZP size is 25% of the fast Fourier transform size, the range loss of the ZP system range is only 17% larger than the CP transmission.

RIS-Enabled Integrated Sensing and Communication for 6G Systems

The following paper proposes a new target localization system design using an architecture based on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) and passive radars (PRs) for integrated sensing and communications systems. The preamble of the communication signal is exploited in order to perform target sensing tasks, which involve detection and localization. The RIS in this case can aid the PR in sensing targets that are otherwise not seen by the PR itself, due to the many obstacles encountered within the propagation channel. Therefore, this work proposes a localization algorithm tailored for the integrated sensing and communications RIS-aided architecture, which is capable of uniquely positioning targets within the scene. The algorithm is capable of detecting the number of targets along with estimating the position of targets via angles and times of arrival. Our simulation results demonstrate the performance of the localization method in terms of different localization and detection metrics and for increasing RIS sizes.

Secure Full Duplex Integrated Sensing and Communications

The following paper models a secure full duplex (FD) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) scenario, where malicious eavesdroppers aim at intercepting the downlink (DL) as well as the uplink (UL) information exchanged between the dual functional radar and communication (DFRC) base station (BS) and a set of communication users. The DFRC BS, on the other hand, aims at illuminating radar beams at the eavesdroppers in order to sense their physical parameters, while maintaining high UL/DL secrecy rates. Based on the proposed model, we formulate a power efficient secure ISAC optimization framework design, which is intended to guarantee both UL and DL secrecy rates requirements, while illuminating radar beams towards eavesdroppers. The framework exploits artificial noise (AN) generation at the DFRC BS, along with UL/DL beamforming design and UL power allocation. We propose a beamforming design solution to the secure ISAC optimization problem. Finally, we corroborate our findings via simulation results and demonstrate the feasibility, as well as the superiority of the proposed algorithm, under different situations. We also reveal insightful trade-offs achieved by our approach.

Emergent Communication in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Future Wireless Networks

In different wireless network scenarios, multiple network entities need to cooperate in order to achieve a common task with minimum delay and energy consumption. Future wireless networks mandate exchanging high dimensional data in dynamic and uncertain environments, therefore implementing communication control tasks becomes challenging and highly complex. Multi-agent reinforcement learning with emergent communication (EC-MARL) is a promising solution to address high dimensional continuous control problems with partially observable states in a cooperative fashion where agents build an emergent communication protocol to solve complex tasks. This paper articulates the importance of EC-MARL within the context of future 6G wireless networks, which imbues autonomous decision-making capabilities into network entities to solve complex tasks such as autonomous driving, robot navigation, flying base stations network planning, and smart city applications. An overview of EC-MARL algorithms and their design criteria are provided while presenting use cases and research opportunities on this emerging topic.

Sparse-DFT and WHT Precoding with Iterative Detection for Highly Frequency-Selective Channels

Various precoders have been recently studied by the wireless community to combat the channel fading effects. Two prominent precoders are implemented with the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and Walsh-Hadamard transform (WHT). The WHT precoder is implemented with less complexity since it does not need complex multiplications. Also, spreading can be applied sparsely to decrease the transceiver complexity, leading to sparse DFT (SDFT) and sparse Walsh-Hadamard (SWH). Another relevant topic is the design of iterative receivers that deal with inter-symbol-interference (ISI). In particular, many detectors based on expectation propagation (EP) have been proposed recently for channels with high levels of ISI. An alternative is the maximum a-posterior (MAP) detector, although it leads to unfeasible high complexity in many cases. In this paper, we provide a relatively low-complexity \textcolor{black}{computation} of the MAP detector for the SWH. We also propose two \textcolor{black}{feasible methods} based on the Log-MAP and Max-Log-MAP. Additionally, the DFT, SDFT and SWH precoders are compared using an EP-based receiver with one-tap FD equalization. Lastly, SWH-Max-Log-MAP is compared to the (S)DFT with EP-based receiver in terms of performance and complexity. The results show that the proposed SWH-Max-Log-MAP has a better performance and complexity trade-off for QPSK and 16-QAM under highly selective channels, but has unfeasible complexity for higher QAM orders.

RNN Based Channel Estimation in Doubly Selective Environments

Doubly-selective channel estimation represents a key element in ensuring communication reliability in wireless systems. Due to the impact of multi-path propagation and Doppler interference in dynamic environments, doubly-selective channel estimation becomes challenging. Conventional symbol-by-symbol (SBS) and frame-by-frame (FBF) channel estimation schemes encounter performance degradation in high mobility scenarios due to the usage of limited training pilots. Recently, deep learning (DL) has been utilized for doubly-selective channel estimation, where long short-term memory (LSTM) and convolutional neural network (CNN) networks are employed in the SBS and FBF, respectively. However, their usage is not optimal, since LSTM suffers from long-term memory problem, whereas, CNN-based estimators require high complexity. For this purpose, we overcome these issues by proposing an optimized recurrent neural network (RNN)-based channel estimation schemes, where gated recurrent unit (GRU) and Bi-GRU units are used in SBS and FBF channel estimation, respectively. The proposed estimators are based on the average correlation of the channel in different mobility scenarios, where several performance-complexity trade-offs are provided. Moreover, the performance of several RNN networks is analyzed. The performance superiority of the proposed estimators against the recently proposed DL-based SBS and FBF estimators is demonstrated for different scenarios while recording a significant reduction in complexity.

Mutual Information Based Pilot Design for ISAC

The following paper presents a novel orthogonal pilot design dedicated for dual-functional radar and communication (DFRC) systems performing multi-user communications and target detection. After careful characterization of both sensing and communication metrics based on mutual information (MI), we propose a multi-objective optimization problem (MOOP) tailored for pilot design, dedicated for simultaneously maximizing both sensing and communication MIs. Moreover, the MOOP is further simplified to a single-objective optimization problem, which characterizes trade-offs between sensing and communication performances. Due to the non-convex nature of the optimization problem, we propose to solve it via the projected gradient descent method on the Stiefel manifold. Closed-form gradient expressions are derived, which enable execution of the projected gradient descent algorithm. Furthermore, we prove convergence to a fixed orthogonal pilot matrix. Finally, we demonstrate the capabilities and superiority of the proposed pilot design, and corroborate relevant trade-offs between sensing MI and communication MI. In particular, significant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains for communication are reported, while re-using the same pilots for target detection with significant gains in terms of probability of detection for fixed false-alarm probability. Other interesting findings are reported through simulations, such as an \textit{information overlap} phenomenon, whereby the fruitful ISAC integration can be fully exploited.