Transmit Power Allocation for Joint Communication and Sensing through Massive MIMO Arrays

TL;DR

This paper explores power allocation in massive MIMO systems that simultaneously support communication and radar sensing, proposing strategies to optimize fairness and radar detection performance.

Contribution

It introduces a power allocation method that balances user fairness and radar detection thresholds in joint communication and sensing with massive MIMO arrays.

Findings

The proposed power control improves system fairness.

A lower bound on the downlink rate is derived.

The system effectively supports joint communication and radar tasks.

Abstract

The paper considers a scenario where a base station (BS), equipped with a large-scale antenna array, execute, using the same frequency range, both communication with mobile users and radar surveillance of the surrounding environment, relying on the ability of the massive MIMO array to synthesize multiple narrow beams. Based on an OFDM signaling format for both communication and surveillance tasks, a lower bound to the system achievable downlink rate is provided, along with a GLRT detection rule that does not require any knowledge about the target parameters. Then, a power allocation strategy is proposed, aimed at maximizing the fairness across the mobile users, while guaranteeing a minimum signal to interference ratio threshold value for the radar system. Numerical results show that the system performs effectively, and that the power control procedure helps in improving the system fairness.