Integrated Sensing and Communication enabled Multiple Base Stations Cooperative Sensing Towards 6G

TL;DR

This paper proposes a multi-base station cooperative sensing framework for 6G, integrating sensing and communication to achieve long-range, accurate sensing beyond single-BS limitations, crucial for smart city and autonomous driving applications.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive multi-BS cooperative sensing framework with new performance metrics, signal design, interference management, and algorithms, advancing 6G sensing capabilities.

Findings

Enhanced sensing range and accuracy demonstrated

Effective interference management strategies developed

Performance evaluations confirm scheme effectiveness

Abstract

Driven by the intelligent applications of sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication systems such as smart city and autonomous driving, which connect the physical and cyber space, the integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) brings a revolutionary change to the base stations (BSs) of 6G by integrating radar sensing and communication in the same hardware and wireless resource. However, with the requirements of long-range and accurate sensing in the applications of smart city and autonomous driving, the ISAC enabled single BS still has a limitation in the sensing range and accuracy. With the networked infrastructures of mobile communication systems, multi-BS cooperative sensing is a natural choice satisfying the requirement of long-range and accurate sensing. In this article, the framework of multi-BS cooperative sensing is proposed, breaking through the limitation of single-BS sensing. The enabling technologies, including unified ISAC performance metrics, ISAC signal design and optimization, interference management, cooperative sensing algorithms, are introduced in details. The performance evaluation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of multi-BS cooperative sensing schemes. With ISAC enabled multi-BS cooperative sensing (ISAC-MCS), the intelligent infrastructures connecting physical and cyber space can be established, ushering the era of 6G promoting the intelligence of everything.