System-Level Analysis of Joint Sensing and Communication based on 5G New Radio

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a 5G NR-based multibeam system for joint sensing and communication, focusing on target detection, position estimation, and the impact of power allocation on performance.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive performance analysis of a MIMO 5G system for joint sensing and communication, including new derivations of detection probability and estimation errors.

Findings

Detection probability and RMSE are derived for LOS conditions.

System performance degrades with multiple targets, evaluated using OSPA metric.

Power allocation significantly affects sensing accuracy.

Abstract

This work investigates a multibeam system for joint sensing and communication (JSC) based on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 5G new radio (NR) waveforms. In particular, we consider a base station (BS) acting as a monostatic sensor that estimates the range, speed, and direction of arrival (DoA) of multiple targets via beam scanning using a fraction of the transmitted power. The target position is then obtained via range and DoA estimation. We derive the sensing performance in terms of probability of detection and root mean squared error (RMSE) of position and velocity estimation of a target under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions. Furthermore, we evaluate the system performance when multiple targets are present, using the optimal sub-pattern assignment (OSPA) metric. Finally, we provide an in-depth investigation of the dominant factors that affect performance, including the fraction of power reserved for sensing.