The integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technology has emerged as an enabler that promises to transform the traditional mobile communication networks into the multifunctional perceptive mobile networks (PMNs), where precise positioning and motion state estimation of network nodes can be achieved relying on wireless communications within the network itself. However, in a practical PMN, multiple types of individually estimated parameters corresponding to multiple sensing targets are not naturally associated with each specific target, which may cause severe obstacles to subsequent signal processing tasks, such as positioning and motion state estimation. To address this challenge, a high-performance low-complexity sensing parameter association algorithm is proposed in this paper. Different from previous works, we first develop a novel spatial filter by exploiting the convolutional beamspace based beamformer to separate paths with different directions of arrival (DOA), and then leverage a low-complexity correlation-based algorithm to associate the DOA estimates with the corresponding paired range-velocity estimates. Extensive simulation results are provided to validate the superior performance of the proposed parameter association algorithm over state-of-the-art schemes.

Perceptive mobile networks (PMN) have been widely recognized as a pivotal pillar for the sixth generation (6G) mobile communication systems. However, the asynchronicity between transmitters and receivers results in velocity and range ambiguity, which seriously degrades the sensing performance. To mitigate the ambiguity, carrier frequency offset (CFO) and time offset (TO) synchronizations have been studied in the literature. However, their performance can be significantly affected by the specific choice of the window functions harnessed. Hence, we set out to find superior window functions capable of improving the performance of CFO and TO estimation algorithms. We firstly derive a near-optimal window, and the theoretical synchronization mean square error (MSE) when utilizing this window. However, since this window is not practically achievable, we then test a practical “window function” by utilizing the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm, which may lead to excellent synchronization performance.

Asynchronous radio transceivers often lead to significant range and velocity ambiguity, posing challenges for precise positioning and velocity estimation in passive-sensing perceptive mobile networks (PMNs). To address this issue, carrier frequency offset (CFO) and time offset (TO) synchronization algorithms have been studied in the literature. However, their performance can be significantly affected by the specific choice of the utilized window functions. Hence, we set out to find superior window functions capable of improving the performance of CFO and TO estimation algorithms. We first derive a near-optimal window, and the theoretical synchronization mean square error (MSE) when utilizing this window. However, since this window is not practically achievable, we then develop a practical window selection criterion and test a special window generated by the super-resolution algorithm. Numerical simulation has verified our analysis.

Significant challenges remain for realizing precise positioning and velocity estimation in practical perceptive vehicular networks (PVN) that rely on the emerging integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technology. Firstly, complicated wireless propagation environment generates undesired clutter, which degrades the vehicular sensing performance and increases the computational complexity. Secondly, in practical PVN, multiple types of parameters individually estimated are not well associated with specific vehicles, which may cause error propagation in multiple-vehicle positioning. Thirdly, radio transceivers in a PVN are naturally asynchronous, which causes strong range and velocity ambiguity in vehicular sensing. To overcome these challenges, in this paper 1) we introduce a moving target indication (MTI) based joint clutter suppression and sensing algorithm, and analyze its clutter-suppression performance and the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of the paired range-velocity estimation upon using the proposed clutter suppression algorithm; 2) we design an algorithm (and its low-complexity versions) for associating individual direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimates with the paired range-velocity estimates based on “domain transformation”; 3) we propose the first viable carrier frequency offset (CFO) and time offset (TO) estimation algorithm that supports passive vehicular sensing in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments. This algorithm treats the delay-Doppler spectrum of the signals reflected by static objects as an environment-specific “fingerprint spectrum”, which is shown to exhibit a circular shift property upon changing the CFO and/or TO. Then, the CFO and TO are efficiently estimated by acquiring the number of circular shifts, and we also analyse the mean squared error (MSE) performance of the proposed time-frequency synchronization algorithm. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the performance advantages of our algorithms under diverse configurations, while corroborating the theoretical analysis.