Precoding for Multi-Cell ISAC: From Coordinated Beamforming to Coordinated Multipoint and Bi-Static Sensing

Nithin Babu, Christos Masouros, Constantinos B. Papadias, Yonina C. Eldar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

— This paper proposes a framework for designing robust precoders for a multi-input single-output (MISO) system that performs integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) across multiple cells and users. We use Cramer-Rao-Bound (CRB) to measure the sensing performance and derive its expressions for two multi-cell scenarios, namely coordinated beamforming (CBF) and coordinated multi-point (CoMP). In the CBF scheme, a BS shares channel state information (CSI) and estimates target parameters using monostatic sensing. In contrast, a BS in the CoMP scheme shares the CSI and data, allowing bistatic sensing through inter-cell reflection. We consider both block-level (BL) and symbol-level (SL) precoding schemes for both the multi-cell scenarios that are robust to channel state estimation errors. The formulated optimization problems to minimize the CRB in estimating the parameters of a target and maximize the minimum communication signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) while satisfying a given total transmit power budget are non-convex. We tackle the non-convexity using a combination of semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and alternating optimization (AO) techniques. Simulations suggest that neglecting the inter-cell reflection and communication links degrades the performance of an ISAC system. The CoMP scenario employing SL precoding performs the best, whereas the BL precoding applied in the CBF scenario produces relatively high estimation error for a given minimum SINR value.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14637-14651
Number of pages14
JournalIEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Volume23
Issue number10
Early online date28 Jun 2024
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Keywords

  • CBF
  • CoMP
  • Cramer-Rao bound
  • ISAC
  • precoder

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications

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