Time-Varying Offset Estimation for Clock-Asynchronous Bistatic ISAC Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Time-Varying Offset Estimation framework for bistatic ISAC systems that effectively estimates and corrects clock offsets without relying on external synchronization, significantly improving sensing accuracy.

Contribution

The paper proposes a dynamic, geometry-based EKF approach for real-time clock offset estimation in asynchronous bistatic ISAC, addressing limitations of static synchronization methods.

Findings

Estimates clock offsets with 60% improved accuracy.

Enables real-time, infrastructure-free synchronization.

Enhances target sensing resolution significantly.

Abstract

The bistatic Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is poised to become a key application for next generation communication networks (e.g., B5G/6G), providing simultaneous sensing and communication services with minimal changes to existing network infrastructure and hardware. However, a significant challenge in bistatic cooperative sensing is clock asynchronism, arising from the use of different clocks at far separated transmitters and receivers. This asynchrony leads to Timing Offsets (TOs) and Carrier Frequency Offsets (CFOs), potentially causing sensing ambiguity. Traditional synchronization methods typically rely on static reference links or GNSS-based timing sources, both of which are often unreliable or unavailable in UAVbased bistatic ISAC scenarios. To overcome these limitations, we propose a Time-Varying Offset Estimation (TVOE) framework tailored for clock-asynchronous bistatic ISAC systems, which leverages the geometrically predictable characteristics of the Line-of-Sight (LoS) path to enable robust, infrastructure-free synchronization. The framework treats the LoS delay and the Doppler shift as dynamic observations and models their evolution as a hidden stochastic process. A state-space formulation is developed to jointly estimate TO and CFO via an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), enabling real-time tracking of clock offsets across successive frames. Furthermore, the estimated offsets are subsequently applied to correct the timing misalignment of all Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) components, thereby enhancing the high-resolution target sensing performance. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed TVOE method improves the estimation accuracy by 60%.