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arXiv · 2309.17321

STARS for Integrated Sensing and Communications: Challenges, Solutions, and Future Directions

Zheng Zhang·Zhaolin Wang·Xidong Mu·Jian Chen·Yuanwei Liu
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Abstract

This article discusses the employment of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting surface (STARS) for integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) networks. First, two fundamental configurations of STARS-enabled ISAC systems are introduced, namely integrated full-space configuration and separated half-space configuration, as well as their respective advantages and common challenges are identified. To address the aforementioned challenges, a novel sensing-at-STARS design is proposed, where the sensing functionality is achieved at the STARS instead of at the base station. Such a design significantly improves the echo signal energy by eliminating undesired echo energy attenuation/leakage, in addition to establishing favorable echo propagation paths to facilitate sensing information extraction. We also present three practical implementations for sensing-at-STARS, including separated elements, mode-selection elements, and power-splitting elements. Each implementation enables flexible sensing-communication tradeoffs. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed STARS-enabled ISAC design. Finally, we discuss several future research directions.

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Zheng Zhang, Zhaolin Wang, Xidong Mu, Jian Chen, Yuanwei Liu. 2023-09-29. STARS for Integrated Sensing and Communications: Challenges, Solutions, and Future Directions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.17321

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