Low-altitude economy (LAE) is an emerging business model, which heavily relies on integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), mobile edge computing (MEC), and covert communications. This paper investigates the covert transmission design in MEC-based networked ISAC systems towards LAE, where an MEC server coordinates multiple access points to simultaneously receive computation tasks from multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), locate a target in a sensing area, and maintain the UAVs’ covert transmission against multiple wardens. We first derive closed-form expressions for the detection error probability (DEP) at the wardens. Then, we formulate a total energy consumption minimization problem by optimizing communication, sensing, and computation resources as well as UAV trajectories, subject to the requirements on the quality of MEC services, DEP, and the radar signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio, and the causality constraints of UAV trajectories. An alternating optimization-based algorithm is proposed to handle the considered problem, which decomposes it into two subproblems: joint optimization of communication, sensing, and computation resources, and UAV trajectory optimization. The former is addressed by a successive convex approximation-based algorithm, while the latter is solved via a trust-region-based algorithm. Simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared with various benchmarks, and reveal the trade-offs among communication, sensing, and computation in LAE systems.

This paper investigates the joint transmit and receive beamforming design for a bistatic integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, where a transmit base station (BS) and a receive BS are coordinated to simultaneously serve multiple downlink and uplink users as well as estimate target positions. The closed-form expression for the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) for target positions and reflection coefficients is derived and minimized subject to constraints of the transmit power budget and communication requirements. To address the considered problem, the closed-form expression for the optimal receive beamforming vectors is derived, facilitating the development of a successive convex approximation (SCA)-based algorithm for optimizing the transmit information beamforming vectors and sensing covariance matrix. In addition, a learning-based approach named ISACNet, trained in an unsupervised manner, is proposed to handle the considered problem. The ISACNet incorporates multi-head self-attention and cross-attention mechanisms to significantly enhance its expressive capability. Simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed SCA-based algorithm and ISACNet. It is observed that the sensing performance is predominantly affected by the downlink communication more than the uplink communication. Furthermore, our ISACNet generates an effective solution in millisecond-level response times with only a marginal performance degradation compared to the SCA-based algorithm.

Recently, an emerging flexible-antenna technology, termed pinching antennas, has attracted growing academic interest. By inserting discrete dielectric materials, pinching antennas can be activated at arbitrary points along waveguides, allowing for flexible customization of channel conditions. This paper investigates a multi-waveguide pinching-antenna integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system, where transmit pinching antennas (TPAs) and receive pinching antennas (RPAs) coordinate to simultaneously detect one potential target and serve one downlink user. We formulate a communication rate maximization problem subject to radar signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirement, transmit power budget, and the allowable movement region of the TPAs, by jointly optimizing TPA locations and transmit beamforming design. To address the non-convexity of the problem, we propose a novel fine-tuning approximation method to reformulate it into a tractable form, followed by a successive convex approximation (SCA)-based algorithm to obtain the solution efficiently. Furthermore, we derive the closed-form optimal solution for a special multi-waveguide case involving a single TPA. Extensive simulations validate both the system design and the proposed algorithm. Results show that the proposed method achieves near-optimal performance compared with the computational-intensive exhaustive search-based benchmark, and pinching-antenna ISAC systems exhibit a distinct communication-sensing trade-off compared with conventional systems.

Adversarial learning is a widely used paradigm in machine learning, often formulated as a min-max optimization problem where the inner maximization imposes adversarial constraints to guide the outer learner toward more robust solutions. This framework underlies methods such as Sharpness-Aware Minimization (SAM) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). However, traditional gradient-based approaches to such problems often face challenges in balancing accuracy and efficiency due to second-order complexities. In this paper, we propose a bilevel optimization framework that reformulates these adversarial learning problems by leveraging the tractability of the lower-level problem. The bilevel framework introduces no additional complexity and enables the use of advanced bilevel tools. We further develop a provably convergent single-loop stochastic algorithm that effectively balances learning accuracy and computational cost. Extensive experiments show that our method improves generation quality in terms of FID and JS scores for GANs, and consistently achieves higher accuracy for SAM under label noise and across various backbones, while promoting flatter loss landscapes. Overall, this work provides a practical and theoretically grounded framework for solving adversarial learning tasks through bilevel optimization.

Both the space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGIN) and the integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) are promising technologies in future communication systems. This paper investigates the mobile user (MU) tracking and robust beamforming design by the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in an SAGIN-ISAC system. Two schemes for acquiring the location information of MUs at the UAV are proposed, namely the space-assisted and ISAC-assisted schemes. The former requires the precise location information from the satellite by the space-air transmission, while the latter estimates the location information of MUs via a proposed extended Kalman filter based algorithm. The obtained location information is then utilized to predict the channel distribution of MUs, which can be used to formulate an outage-constrained energy efficiency (EE) maximization problem. The considered problem is first reformulated based on the Bernstein-type inequality to derive computationally tractable forms of the outage probability constraints. Then, the reformulated problem is solved via the semi-definite relaxation (SDR) and successive convex approximation methods, where the tightness of employing SDR is theoretically proved. Numerical results illustrate the trajectories of the UAV for tracking MUs under the space-assisted and ISAC-assisted schemes, and discuss the impact of the space-air transmission on the EE performance. It is observed that there exists a trade-off between space-air transmission overhead and location prediction precision of MUs. By integrating the ISAC in SAGIN, the information demand from the space is reduced compared with traditional SAGIN.

This paper investigates the system model and the transmit beamforming design for the Cell-Free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. The impact of the uncertainty of the target locations on the propagation of wireless signals is considered during both uplink and downlink phases, and especially, the main statistics of the MIMO channel estimation error are theoretically derived in the closed-form fashion. A fundamental performance metric, termed communication-sensing (C-S) region, is defined for the considered system via three cases, i.e., the sensing-only case, the communication-only case and the ISAC case. The transmit beamforming design problems for the three cases are respectively carried out through different reformulations, e.g., the Lagrangian dual transform and the quadratic fractional transform, and some combinations of the block coordinate descent method and the successive convex approximation method. Numerical results present a 3-dimensional C-S region with a dynamic number of access points to illustrate the trade-off between communication and radar sensing. The advantage for radar sensing of the Cell-Free massive MIMO system is also studied via a comparison with the traditional cellular system. Finally, the efficacy of the proposed beamforming schemes is validated in comparison with zero-forcing and maximum ratio transmission schemes.

This paper investigates the beamforming design in the Cell-Free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, termed as the CF-ISAC system, in presence of the channel state information (CSI) estimation error. The beamforming design is formulated into a sensing beampattern matching mean square error minimization problem under the constraints of the power budgets of the access points (APs) and the ergodic rate requirements of the users. A computationally tractable lower bound of the ergodic rate over the imperfect CSI is derived based on the Jensen's Inequality, and then a successive convex approximation based algorithm is proposed to solve the considered problem. Numerical results illustrate the beampatterns for different direction of arrival estimations of the targets. The advantage of the CF-ISAC system for radar sensing is revealed based on the relative location between the AP and the target.

This paper investigates the transmission design of an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. A sensing beampattern matching mean squared error (MSE) minimization problem is formulated under constraints of the power budgets at the base station and the RIS, the amplification factor of the RIS and the information rate requirements of users, by jointly optimizing the transmit beamforming vectors, the covariance matrix of the sensing signal and the reflection coefficients of the RIS. The considered problem is solved in an alternative optimization manner by decomposing the original problem into two sub-problems, where each sub-problem is solved via semi-definite relaxation (SDR) and successive convex approximation (SCA). The tightness of applying SDR is theoretically proved. Simulation results verify the convergence behavior and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. It is also shown that the active RIS is able to improve the sensing beampattern matching performance by enhancing the information transmission.

This paper investigates the robust and secure task transmission and computation scheme in multi-antenna unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) networks, where the UAV is dual-function, i.e., aerial MEC and aerial relay. The channel uncertainty is considered during information offloading and downloading. An energy consumption minimization problem is formulated under some constraints including users’ quality of service and information security requirements and the UAV’s trajectory’s causality, by jointly optimizing the CPU frequency, the offloading time, the beamforming vectors, the artificial noise and the trajectory of the UAV, as well as the CPU frequency, the offloading time and the transmit power of each user. To solve the non-convex problem, a reformulated problem is first derived by a series of convex reformation methods, i.e., semi-definite relaxation, S-Procedure and first-order approximation, and then, solved by a proposed successive convex approximation (SCA)-based algorithm. The convergence performance and computational complexity of the proposed algorithm are analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms existing benchmark schemes. Besides, the proposed SCA-based algorithm is superior to traditional alternative optimization-based algorithm.