Integrated Sensing and Communications: From Link-Level Design to Distributed Coordination

The future global cellular infrastructure will underpin a variety of applications, such as smart city solutions, urban security, infrastructure monitoring, and smart mobility, among others. These emerging applications require new network functionalities that go beyond traditional communication. Key network KPIs for 6G include Gb/s data rates, cm-level localization, μs-level latency, and Tb/Joule energy efficiency. The ultimate goal for a cellular deployment would be to deliver coordinated sensing of an unprecedented scale. In this talk, I focus on enabling multifunctionality in signals and wireless transmissions as a means of reducing hardware redundancy through integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). In this talk I briefly present the opportunities of ISAC as a natural evolution of the two technologies, with obvious gains in energy-, hardware- and cost- efficiency through the use of dual-functional hardware. I further explain that their co-design also offers opportunities in flexible trade-offs and new synergies between sensing and communication. Moving on from link-level ISAC systems, I explore network level deployments and in particular cell coordination approaches tailored for the dual-functionality of ISAC, alongside distributed approaches, outlining key opportunities, key challenges and recent solutions.