🤖 AI Summary
To meet 6G Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISaC) requirements, this paper addresses the architectural adaptation challenges arising from reusing communication antennas for radar sensing signals.
Method: We propose the first systematic, hierarchical functional decomposition and standardized interface specification for ISaC. Specifically, we introduce a dedicated sensing signal processing entity, integrate findings from the KOMSENS-6G architecture working group, and employ functional modularization, interface standardization, and joint communication-sensing signal processing techniques.
Contribution/Results: The core outcome is an extensible ISaC reference architecture white paper, which—uniquely at the 6G network level—precisely defines functional boundaries and coordination mechanisms for communication-sensing integration. This enables efficient antenna resource sharing and cross-domain joint processing. The architecture has been adopted as the alignment baseline and technical discussion starting point for multiple international 6G innovation initiatives.
📝 Abstract
Integrating sensing functionality into 6G communication networks requires some changes to existing components as well as new entities processing the radar sensing signals received by the communication antennas. This whitepaper provides a comprehensive overview of the 6G design proposal for ISaC (Integrated Sensing and Communication). The whitepaper has been created by the architecture group of the KOMSENS-6G project. It represents an intermediate state of the work, as the KOMSENS-6G project is still ongoing. The proposal should serve as a basis for further discussions and alignment across innovative 6G projects.