Beam Refinement and User State Acquisition via Integrated Sensing and Communication with OFDM

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel integrated sensing and communication scheme using OFDM that enhances beam refinement and user state acquisition for mmWave systems, enabling more accurate tracking and improved data rates.

Contribution

It introduces a simple beam refinement and user state acquisition method leveraging a hybrid radar-communication architecture for dynamic environments.

Findings

Significant improvement in communication rate.

Accurate user state estimation achieved.

Effective beam and location tracking in real-time.

Abstract

The performance of millimeter wave (mmWave) communications strongly relies on accurate beamforming both at base station and user terminal sides, referred to as beam alignment (BA). Existing BA algorithms provide initial yet coarse angle estimates as they typically use a codebook of a finite number of discreteized beams (angles). Towards emerging applications requiring timely and precise tracking of dynamically changing state of users, we consider a system where a base station with a co-located radar receiver estimates relevant state parameters of users and simultaneously sends OFDM-modulated data symbols. In particular, based on a hybrid digital analog data transmitter/radar receiver architecture, we propose a simple beam refinement and initial state acquisition scheme that can be used for beam and user location tracking in a dynamic environment. Numerical results inspired by IEEE802.11ad parameters demonstrate that the proposed method is able to improve significantly the communication rate and further achieve accurate state estimation.