Fundamental Tradeoffs for ISAC Multiple Access in Finite-Blocklength Regime

TL;DR

This paper explores the fundamental tradeoffs between communication rate and sensing accuracy in uplink ISAC systems operating under finite blocklength constraints, emphasizing the effects of short packets and low latency.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric decomposition of sensing error, derives bounds on the tradeoff between communication and sensing, and links channel estimation accuracy to practical sensing parameters in the FBL regime.

Findings

Cross-correlation among users constrains ISAC performance.

Achievability and converse bounds characterize the tradeoff.

Numerical results show impact of blocklength and antenna dimensions.

Abstract

This paper investigates the fundamental communication--sensing tradeoffs of uplink dual-functional integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) multiple access under finite blocklength (FBL) constraints. Unlike conventional asymptotic analyses, we explicitly account for the limitations under FBL constraints imposed by short packets and low-latency transmission. By examining the unbiased channel state sensing estimator, we establish a geometric decomposition of the sensing error, indicating that it is jointly determined by the signal-to-noise ratio and the correlation structure of the information codebook. This insight reveals how cross-correlation among active users in the codebook geometry fundamentally constrains dual-functional ISAC performance. Consequently, we derive achievability and converse bounds that characterize the tradeoff between communication code rate and sensing accuracy in the FBL regime, with the converse further bounded by Shannon capacity. Moreover, by treating channel state sensing as a high-level sensing objective, a universal Cram\'er--Rao bound is derived to link channel estimation accuracy to practical sensing parameters. Examples of parameter sensing are also provided based on 3GPP standard. Numerical results validate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the impact of blocklength, antenna dimensions, and sensing requirements.