To support the development of low altitude economy, the air-ground integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) networks need to be constructed to provide reliable and robust communication and sensing services. In this paper, the sensing capabilities in the cooperative air-ground ISAC networks are evaluated in terms of area radar detection coverage probability under a constant false alarm rate, where the distribution of aggregated sensing interferences is analyzed as a key intermediate result. Compared with the analysis based on the strongest interferer approximation, taking the aggregated sensing interference into consideration is better suited for pico-cell scenarios with high base station density. Simulations are conducted to validate the analysis.

This paper investigates a multiple uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system equipped with movable antenna (MA) arrays. To align with practical scenarios, we simulate the dynamic roaming of ground users and the three-dimensional deployment of UAVs in the airspace. We aim to maximize the total data rate by jointly optimizing key operational variables, including UAV trajectories, user association, antenna positions, and beamforming. This formulated problem is subject to constraints on transmission power and the sensing signal-to-noise ratio. To address the challenge of dynamically unknown state transitions due to user mobility, the original problem is decomposed into two steps and solved using different algorithms. First, we utilize the hierarchical density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (HDBSCAN) algorithm to address the ground-to-air association problem, periodically updating clusters and re-associating during training. The clustering hotspots are used to suggest flight directions for the UAVs. Second, we develop the soft actor-critic algorithm to solve the joint optimization problem of UAV trajectories, antenna positions, and beamforming. Experimental results demonstrate that UAVs equipped with MA arrays outperform those with traditional fixed antenna arrays in ISAC systems, and the proposed optimization strategy effectively enhances communication rates while ensuring sensing performance.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are poised for explosive growth in the low-altitude economy, causing spectrum congestion and posing a challenge to airspace regulation. Although integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) enables simultaneous communication and sensing, alleviating the spectrum shortage, the capability of one single base station (BS) is generally limited. Therefore, a multi-BS cooperative ISAC system is developed to perceive the status of UAVs at the cell edge. Multiple BSs share the same time-frequency resources and adopt a time-division scheme to avoid mutual interference between communication and sensing functionalities. Specifically, the frame structure of the communication system is modified to accommodate the sensing functionality. A robust interference nulling based beam pattern is first proposed to prevent the line-of-sight (LoS) interference between BSs from overrunning the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Moreover, we designed a space-time block codec-based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to separate echo signals originating from different BSs, which transforms the inter-BS reflected interference into bistatic sensing signals. Furthermore, a data-level fusion method based on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the range profile is applied to improve the positioning accuracy. The numerical results reveal that the proposed beam pattern greatly avoids LoS interference. The echo signals originating from neighboring BSs can assist in target detection and angle of arrival (AoA) estimation. Compared to soft fusion and single-BS schemes, the proposed fusion method enhances positioning precision by an order of magnitude, and is practically feasible even in the presence of clock synchronization errors.

Pinching antennas (PAs), a new type of reconfigurable and flexible antenna structures, have recently attracted significant research interest due to their ability to create line-of-sight links and mitigate large-scale path loss. Owing to their potential benefits, integrating PAs into wireless powered mobile edge computing (MEC) systems is regarded as a viable solution to improve both the efficiency of the energy transfer and task offloading. Unlike prior studies that assume ideal continuous PA placement along waveguides, this paper investigates a practical discrete PA-assisted wireless powered MEC framework, where devices first harvest energy from PA-emitted radio-frequency signals and then adopt a partial offloading mode, allocating part of the harvested energy to local computing and the remainder to uplink offloading. The uplink phase considers both the time-division multiple access (TDMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), each examined under three levels of PA activation flexibility. For each configuration, we formulate a joint optimization problem to maximize the total computational bits and conduct a theoretical performance comparison between the TDMA and NOMA schemes. To address the resulting mixed-integer nonlinear problems, we develop a two-layer algorithm that combines closed-form solutions based on Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions with a cross-entropy-based learning method. Numerical results validate the superiority of the proposed design in terms of the harvested energy and computation performance, revealing that TDMA and NOMA achieve comparable performance under coarser PA activation levels, whereas finer activation granularity enables TDMA to achieve superior computation performance over NOMA.

The combination of Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) enables devices to simultaneously sense the environment and offload data to the base stations (BS) for intelligent processing, thereby reducing local computational burdens. However, transmitting raw sensing data from ISAC devices to the BS often incurs substantial fronthaul overhead and latency. This paper investigates a three-tier collaborative inference framework enabled by Integrated Sensing, Communication, and Computing (ISCC), where cloud servers, MEC servers, and ISAC devices cooperatively execute different segments of a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) for intelligent sensing. By offloading intermediate DNN features, the proposed framework can significantly reduce fronthaul transmission load. Furthermore, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is employed to enhance both sensing quality and offloading efficiency. To minimize the overall sensing task inference latency across all ISAC devices, we jointly optimize the DNN partitioning strategy, ISAC beamforming, and computational resource allocation at the MEC servers and ISAC devices, subject to sensing beampattern constraints. We also propose an efficient two-layer optimization algorithm. In the inner layer, we derive closed-form solutions for computational resource allocation using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Moreover, we design the ISAC beamforming vectors via an iterative method based on the majorization–minimization and weighted minimum mean square error techniques. In the outer layer, we develop a cross-entropy-based probabilistic learning algorithm to determine an optimal DNN partitioning strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework substantially outperforms existing two-tier schemes in inference latency.

Affine Frequency Division Multiplexing (AFDM) has attracted considerable attention for its robustness to Doppler effects. However, its high receiver-side computational complexity remains a major barrier to practical deployment. To address this, we propose a novel symbol-level precoding (SLP)-based AFDM transmission framework, which shifts the signal processing burden in downlink communications from user side to the base station (BS), enabling direct symbol detection without requiring channel estimation or equalization at the receiver. Specifically, in the uplink phase, we propose a Sparse Bayesian Learning (SBL) based channel estimation algorithm by exploiting the inherent sparsity of affine frequency (AF) domain channels. In particular, the sparse prior is modeled via a hierarchical Laplace distribution, and parameters are iteratively updated using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. We also derive the Bayesian Cramér-Rao Bound (BCRB) to characterize the theoretical performance limit. In the downlink phase, the BS employs the SLP technology to design the transmitted waveform based on the estimated uplink channel state information (CSI) and channel reciprocity. The resulting optimization problem is formulated as a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem, and its dual problem is investigated by Lagrangian function and Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SBL estimator outperforms traditional orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) in accuracy and robustness to off-grid effects, while the SLP-based waveform design scheme achieves performance comparable to conventional AFDM receivers while significantly reducing the computational complexity at receiver, validating the practicality of our approach.

In this paper, sensing-assisted secure communication in a multi-user multi-eavesdropper integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system is investigated. Confidential communication signals and dedicated sensing signals are jointly transmitted by a base station (BS) to simultaneously serve users and sense aerial eavesdroppers (AEs). A sum rate maximization problem is formulated under AEs’ Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) and sensing Signal-to-Clutter-plus-Noise Ratio (SCNR) constraints. A fractional-programming-based alternating optimization algorithm is developed to solve this problem for fully digital arrays, where successive convex approximation (SCA) and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) are leveraged to handle non-convex constraints. Furthermore, the minimum number of dedicated sensing beams is analyzed via a worst-case rank bound, upon which the proposed beamforming design is further extended to the hybrid analog-digital (HAD) array architecture, where the unit-modulus constraint is addressed by manifold optimization. Simulation results demonstrate that only a small number of sensing beams are sufficient for both sensing and jamming AEs, and the proposed designs consistently outperform strong baselines while also revealing the communication–sensing trade-off.

In this paper, we investigate a novel wireless powered mobile edge computing (MEC) system assisted by pinching antennas (PAs), where devices first harvest energy from a base station and then offload computation-intensive tasks to an MEC server. As an emerging technology, PAs utilize long dielectric waveguides embedded with multiple localized dielectric particles, which can be spatially configured through a pinching mechanism to effectively reduce large-scale propagation loss. This capability facilitates both efficient downlink energy transfer and uplink task offloading. To fully exploit these advantages, we adopt a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) framework and formulate a joint optimization problem to maximize the system’s computational capacity by jointly optimizing device transmit power, time allocation, PA positions in both uplink and downlink, and radiation control. To address the resulting non-convexity caused by variable coupling, we develop an alternating optimization algorithm that integrates particle swarm optimization (PSO) with successive convex approximation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PA-assisted design substantially improves both energy harvesting efficiency and computational performance compared to conventional antenna systems.

Backscatter communication and harvest-then-transmit (HTT) communication are regarded as promising technologies for enabling green Internet of Things (IoT). The current works on the joint use of backscatter communication and HTT are limited in single cell scenarios with the fixed backscatter-then-HTT transmission structure. In this work, we propose a transmission scheme with flexible mode selection for the hybrid backscatter-HTT multi-cell system to achieve much improved communication performance, and then study the joint design for such a system. Specifically, by utilizing multi-antenna technology and enabling the flexible mode selecting between backscatter and HTT, a novel transmission scheme is developed. With the aim to maximize the sum rate of the considered system, we formulate a joint optimization problem for the base station transmission beamforming (TB), the transmission mode (TM), and the transmit power (TP) of the hybrid backscatter-HTT devices. To address the formulated non-convex problem, we propose a block coordinate descent-based algorithm, namely J3TO, to jointly optimize TB, TM, and TP, by decoupling the original problem into three sub-problems. Therein, the weighted minimum mean square error approach, matching theory, and the fractional programming technique are leveraged to deal with the sub-problems efficiently. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm flexibly integrates the merits of backscatter and HTT technologies, achieving superior performance across various scenarios, compared with the benchmark schemes, e.g., backscatter-only SDMA, HTT-only SDMA, and backscatter-HTT TDMA.

The development of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technique makes it possible to exploit echoes of communication signals to localize aerial eavesdropper (AE) and enhance the secrecy performance. In this paper, we investigate the sensing-assisted secure precoding design in rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) systems. In particular, we aim at maximizing the minimum achievable rate among all users while satisfying the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) constraint for AE’s 2-dimensional angle estimation and protecting both common stream and private streams from being intercepted. We first consider the ideal case where perfect CSI is available and propose an iterative optimization algorithm, where successive convex approximation technique, fractional programming, and the Schur complement condition are leveraged to handle the non-convex constraints and objective function. This scenario is further extended to a more general case with channel estimation errors, for which we propose a robust precoding design algorithm to ensure worst-case performance. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of leveraging the sensing capability to enhance secrecy performance and show that the RSMA scheme is able to achieve higher user rates and lower eavesdropping rates compared to spatial division multiple access (SDMA)-based sensing-assisted secure communication system. Furthermore, we demonstrate the trade-off between achievable minimum user rate and sensing accuracy.

When applying integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) in future mobile networks, many sensing tasks have low latency requirements, preferably being implemented at terminals. However, terminals often have limited computing capabilities and energy supply. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of leveraging the advanced computing capabilities of mobile edge computing (MEC) servers and the cloud server to address the sensing tasks of ISAC terminals. Specifically, we propose a novel three-tier integrated sensing, communication, and computing (ISCC) framework composed of one cloud server, multiple MEC servers, and multiple terminals, where the terminals can optionally offload sensing data to the MEC server or the cloud server. The offload message is sent via the ISAC waveform, whose echo is used for sensing. We jointly optimize the computation offloading and beamforming strategies to minimize the average execution latency while satisfying sensing requirements. In particular, we propose a low-complexity distributed algorithm to solve the problem. Firstly, we use the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and derive the closed-form solution for offloading decision variables. Subsequently, we convert the beamforming optimization sub-problem into a weighted minimum mean-square error (WMMSE) problem and propose a fractional programming based algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed ISCC framework and distributed algorithm significantly reduce the execution latency and the energy consumption of sensing tasks at a lower computational complexity compared to existing schemes.

Incorporating mobile edge computing (MEC) and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has emerged as a promising technology to enable integrated sensing, communication, and computing (ISCC) in the sixth generation (6G) networks. ISCC is particularly attractive for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) applications, where vehicles perform ISAC to sense the environment and simultaneously offload the sensing data to roadside base stations (BSs) for remote processing. In this paper, we investigate a particular ISCC-enabled V2X system consisting of multiple multi-antenna BSs serving a set of single-antenna vehicles, in which the vehicles perform their respective ISAC operations (for simultaneous sensing and offloading to the associated BS) over orthogonal sub-bands. With the focus on fairly minimizing the sensing completion latency for vehicles while ensuring the detection probability constraints, we jointly optimize the allocations of radio resources (i.e., the sub-band allocation, transmit power control at vehicles, and receive beamforming at BSs) as well as computation resources at BS MEC servers. To solve the formulated complex mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, we propose an alternating optimization algorithm. In this algorithm, we determine the sub-band allocation via the branch-and-bound method, optimize the transmit power control via successive convex approximation (SCA), and derive the receive beamforming and computation resource allocation at BSs in closed form based on generalized Rayleigh entropy and fairness criteria, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed joint resource allocation design significantly reduces the maximum task completion latency among all vehicles. Furthermore, we also demonstrate several interesting trade-offs between the system performance and resource utilizations.

Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation holds significant potential for diverse applications in both sensing and communication fields. This paper mainly investigates waveform optimization for OTFS modulation, aiming to design pilot symbol matrices with low sidelobe levels and data symbol matrices with high communication rates under peak-to-average power ratio constraints. We first formulate the problem of minimizing the weighted integrated sidelobe levels and maximizing the communication rate in the delay-Doppler domain. Subsequently, to address the complicated optimization problem, a Majorization-Minimization based algorithm is proposed to decompose it into a series of subproblems. These subproblems are then reformulated as unconstrained optimization problems on the Stiefel manifold, and the Riemannian conjugate gradient method is employed to solve them efficiently. Moreover, a faster iterative algorithm is proposed based on second-order Taylor approximation to accelerate the convergence speed. Simulation results validate that the proposed algorithms effectively achieve pilot matrices with desirable ambiguity functions and data symbol matrices with high communication rates under various weighting factors.

In this paper, we investigate joint trajectory and beamforming design for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-relayed integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems with mobile edge eomputing (MEC) under the clutter environment. Due to the limited on-board computing capability, the UAV has to offload sensing echoes to the base station (BS) for efficient processing. A novel relay-based ISAC-then-offload frame structure is considered. We aim to maximize the throughput of the BS-UAV-user relaying link while ensuring sensing accuracy and efficient sensing data offloading. The non-convex problem is solved using an alternating optimization algorithm based on successive convex approximation (SCA). Simulation results illustrate that our proposed algorithm achieves near-optimal communication performance while guaranteeing sensing accuracy, addressing the balance between the communication and sensing performance. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of critical system parameters including sensing constraints, power control factor, and UAV flight duration on communication performance, and explore the trade-offs between energy efficiency and spectral efficiency under varying sensing data intensity and offloading duration.

In this paper, we propose a novel symbiotic sensing and communication (SSAC) framework, comprising a base station (BS) and a passive sensing node. In particular, the BS transmits communication waveform to serve vehicle users (VUEs), while the sensing node is employed to execute sensing tasks based on the echoes in a bistatic manner, thereby avoiding the issue of self-interference. Besides the weak target of interest, the sensing node tracks VUEs and shares sensing results with BS to facilitate sensing-assisted beamforming. By considering both fully digital arrays and hybrid analog-digital (HAD) arrays, we investigate the beamforming design in the SSAC system. We first derive the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the two-dimensional angles of arrival estimation as the sensing metric. Next, we formulate an achievable sum rate maximization problem under the CRLB constraint, where the channel state information is reconstructed based on the sensing results. Then, we propose two penalty dual decomposition (PDD)-based alternating algorithms for fully digital and HAD arrays, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve an outstanding data rate with effective localization capability for both VUEs and the weak target. In particular, the HAD beamforming design exhibits remarkable performance gain compared to conventional schemes, especially with fewer radio frequency chains.

Integrated sensing and communications (ISACs) technique is being considered as a promising technique for future networks. Facing the diverse services required for different nodes, in this article, we investigate the ISAC systems with simultaneous public and confidential transmission, where an ISAC base station simultaneously provides integrated public and confidential services for different nodes and performs target tracking using the echo of communication signals. We study the optimization of public, confidential signals, and artificial noise (AN) in both the time-invariant and time-varying channels. Our primary goal is to minimize the differences between the actual and desired beampatterns, while meeting the constraints of the public message rate (PMR) and confidential message secrecy rate (CMSR). For time-invariant channels with typically negligible estimation error of the channel state information (CSI), we aim to synthesize the target beampattern while satisfying the PMR and CMSR constraints. To this end, we first propose a successive convex approximation-based algorithm to jointly design the transmit covariance matrices and the AN covariance matrix; we then propose a low-complexity two-stage algorithm that is more suitable for the practical implementation. The proposed algorithms are further extended to the time-varying channels where the estimated may contain large errors. Simulation results are provided and verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) is emerging as a promising technology by achieving full-space coverage and further improving system performance. However, most existing works adopted an independent phase-shift model, which is high-cost and may be difficult to achieve in realistic wideband systems. Consequently, a coupled phase-shift STAR-RIS enhanced downlink multi-user multiple-input single-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system is investigated for both unicast and broadcast communications in this paper. We aim to maximize the average sum-rate (ASR) for all subcarriers by jointly optimizing the precoding matrices and the reflecting and transmitting coefficients (RTCs). Specifically, a block coordinate descent algorithm is proposed to iteratively design each block of a multiblock problem reformulated by the original one. The precoding matrices are optimized by the Lagrangian multiplier method for low computational complexity. For the RTCs, an element-based alternating optimization algorithm is proposed to optimize the coupled phase-shift and amplitude coefficients. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing the ASR with that of other benchmarks. Moreover, its performance closely approaches the upper bound under various practical user proportion scenarios on both sides of the STAR-RIS.

In this paper, we investigate the realization of covert communication in a general radar-communication cooperation system, which includes integrated sensing and communications as a special example. We explore the possibility of utilizing the sensing ability of radar to track and jam the aerial adversary target attempting to detect the transmission. Based on the echoes from the target, the extended Kalman filtering technique is employed to predict its trajectory as well as the corresponding channels. Depending on the maneuvering altitude of adversary target, two channel state information (CSI) models are considered, with the aim of maximizing the covert transmission rate by jointly designing the radar waveform and communication transmit beamforming vector based on the constructed channels. For perfect CSI under the free-space propagation model, by decoupling the joint design, we propose an efficient algorithm to guarantee that the target cannot detect the transmission. For imperfect CSI due to the multi-path components, a robust joint transmission scheme is proposed based on the property of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The convergence behaviour, tracking MSE, false alarm and missed detection probabilities, and covert transmission rate are evaluated. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve accurate tracking. For both channel models, the proposed sensing-assisted covert transmission design is able to guarantee the covertness, and significantly outperforms the conventional schemes.

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications have been regarded as an emerging application in next-generation wireless networks. However, guaranteeing high-quality wireless communications in high-mobility scenarios remains a major challenge. In this paper, we investigate the deployment of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) for improving the communication performance of V2I systems. In particular, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) signals are exploited to facilitate sensing-assisted beamforming. Aiming at maximizing the achievable rate, two deep learning-based predictive beamforming mechanisms are proposed. First, a two-stage beamforming design is devised, where the channel state information (CSI) is estimated based on the echo signals and predicted by a dedicated neural network for time-varying channels. Then, the transmit beamforming vector at the base station (BS) and the reflect beamforming matrix at the RIS are jointly optimized. To further reduce the computational complexities, we develop an end-to-end beamforming design by employing the parameter sharing mechanism and weighted loss function. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve an outstanding data rate that approaches the upper bound exploiting perfect CSI. In particular, the end-to-end design exhibits remarkable robustness against the impact of noise and achieves outstanding sensing-assisted beamforming performance, especially at the low signal-to-noise ratio region.

Dual-functional radar-communication (DFRC) has been widely concerned in future communication systems. By aggregating communication and detection resources, DFRC enables improved communication data rate as well as continual real-time sensing capability. However, the spectral efficiency of the communication channel will be inevitably compromised since the transceiver design has to take into account both of the communication and radar oriented beampatterns. In this paper, the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) panels are deployed to assist the design of multi-antenna DFRC transceivers, where the RIS panels introduce additional degree-of-freedom to accommodate the dual-functional beampattern. First, applying the operator-valued free probability theory, we derive the closed-form expression of the asymptotic achievable rate of the multi-RIS-assisted MIMO DFRC systems in presence of general Rician fading. Then, we propose an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm to jointly optimize the transmit signals of the DFRC transmitter and the phase shifts of the reflecting elements of the RIS panels, which achieves an optimal tradeoff between the achievable rate and the desired radar beampattern. Simulation results verify the accuracy of the asymptotic expression of the achievable rate. In addition, the deployment of RISs and the proposed AO algorithm are proven to improve both the detection and communication performance.

With the widespread connectivity of everyday devices realized by the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), communication between users of different devices has become increasingly close. In practical scenarios, obstacles present between the transceiver may cause a deterioration in the quality of the received signals. Therefore, the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is employed to create virtual Line-of-Sight (LoS) channels in an IoT network. Specifically, this article aims at maximizing the sum-rate of the RIS-assisted multiuser multiple-input–single-output (MU-MISO) communication systems by jointly optimizing the phase shift matrix of the RIS and transmit beamforming. To solve the formulated nonconvex problem, a piecewise-deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm is proposed in this article. Unlike the existing alternative optimization (AO) algorithms, the proposed algorithm avoids falling into the local optimal by using an exploration mechanism. Moreover, piecewise-DRL can reduce the action dimension, allowing the algorithm to obtain faster convergence. Simultaneously, this algorithm also ensures that the parameters of the two-part networks are updated to generate a larger system sum-rate by unsupervised joint optimization. Simulations in various circumstances reveal that the proposed approach is more robust and presents better stability and faster convergence than previous state-of-the-art algorithms while obtaining competitive performance.

To facilitate the development of Internet of Things (IoT) services, future networks are expected to simultaneously provide sensing functionality and support low-power communications. In this article, we investigate the system sum-rate maximization problem in an integrated sensing and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) backscatter communication system, where the base station (BS) simultaneously detects backscattered signals from multiple IoT devices and senses targets based on the echo signals. We formulate a joint transmit beamforming, RIS phase shifts, and receive beamforming design problem under the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) constraint for target angle estimation. To solve the nonconvex problem, we then propose a fractional programming (FP)-based alternating optimization algorithm. In particular, the FP technique is first employed to transform the formulated problem into a more tractable form, and the exact penalty method and manifold optimization are then utilized to address the CRB constraint and constant-modulus constraint, respectively. Numerical results have shown that the proposed design significantly improves the system sum rate and illustrates the tradeoff between the communication and sensing performance.

Beamforming design is an important technique for enhancing the performance of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems. However, related research based on the hybrid analog-digital (HAD) architecture is still limited. In this paper, we investigate the partially-connected hybrid beamforming design for multi-user ISAC systems. Instead of the commonly used beampattern related metric, the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) is employed as the sensing performance metric for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. We aim to minimize the CRB while satisfying the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints for individual communication users by jointly optimizing the digital and analog beamformers. Subsequently, we propose an alternating optimization based framework, which is significantly different from the conventional methods based on the approximation of the optimal fully-digital beamformer with a hybrid one. We also consider an alternative formulation of optimizing the SINR of radar echo signals. Based on optimal receive beamformer design, we transform the SINR based joint transmitter and receiver optimization problem to a series of problems sharing a similar form with the CRB based transmitter optimization problem, which can be efficiently solved via the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed designs provide significant performance gains in DOA estimation over the existing beampattern approximation based design.

In this paper, we investigate the network utility maximization problem in a dual-functional radar-communication multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (multi-UAV) network where multiple UAVs serve a group of communication users and cooperatively sense the target simultaneously. To balance the communication and sensing performance, we formulate a joint UAV location, user association, and UAV transmission power control problem to maximize the total network utility under the constraint of localization accuracy. We then propose a computationally practical method to solve this NP-hard problem by decomposing it into three sub-problems, i.e., UAV location optimization, user association and transmission power control. Three mechanisms are then introduced to solve the three sub-problems based on spectral clustering, coalition game, and successive convex approximation, respectively. The spectral clustering result provides an initial solution for user association. Based on the three mechanisms, an overall algorithm is proposed to iteratively solve the whole problem. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm improves the minimum user data rate significantly, as well as the fairness of the network. Moreover, the proposed algorithm increases the network utility with a lower power consumption and similar localization accuracy, compared to conventional techniques.