Exploiting Movable Elements of Intelligent Reflecting Surface for Enhancement of Integrated Sensing and Communication

TL;DR

This paper investigates how movable elements of intelligent reflecting surfaces can be optimized to improve integrated sensing and communication systems, enhancing coverage, rate, and accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to optimize IRS element positions for better ISAC performance, including joint beamforming and multi-user scenarios.

Findings

Movable IRS elements improve communication rate.

Element movement enhances sensing accuracy.

Coverage of ISAC systems is significantly broadened.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose to exploit movable elements of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) to enhance the overall performance of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems. Firstly, focusing on a single-user scenario, we reveal the function of movable elements by performance analysis, and then design a joint beamforming and element position optimization scheme. Further, we extend it to a general multi-user scenario, and also propose an element position optimization scheme according to the derived performance expressions. Finally, simulation results confirm that the movement of IRS elements can improve the communication rate and the sensing accuracy, and especially broaden the coverage of ISAC.