STAR-RIS Transceivers: Integrated Sensing and Communication with Pulsed Signals

TL;DR

This paper presents an innovative STAR-RIS transceiver that combines sensing and communication by using pulsed signals, space and time modulation, and a passive array to detect targets and transmit data simultaneously.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated transceiver design employing space and time modulation with pulsed signals for simultaneous sensing and communication.

Findings

Effective space modulation illuminates two directions

Time modulation with binary codebooks distinguishes echoes

Minimal impact on radar detection and velocity estimation

Abstract

This study examines an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) transceiver featuring a simultaneous transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) and a receiver equipped with a passive electronically scanned array (PESA) and a single digital channel. By utilizing a periodic pulsed signal emitted by a feeder, we introduce at the STAR-RIS a space modulation to illuminate two angular directions observed by the radar receiver, one in each half-space, and a time modulation to distinguish the corresponding echoes from prospective moving targets and embed communication messages. The proposed time modulation employs orthogonal binary codebooks with different trade-offs in transmission and error rates, while having minimal impact on the radar performance, evaluated by probability of detection and root mean square error in the radial velocity estimation.