Beyond 5G Networks: Integration of Communication, Computing, Caching, and Control

In recent years,the exponential proliferation of smart devices with their intelligent applications poses severe challenges on conventional cellular networks.Such challenges can be potentially overcome by integrating communication,computing,caching,and control(i4C)technologies.In this survey,we first give a snapshot of different aspects of the i4C,comprising background,motivation,leading technological enablers,potential applications,and use cases.Next,we describe different models of communication,computing,caching,and control(4C)to lay the foundation of the integration approach.We review current stateof-the-art research efforts related to the i4C,focusing on recent trends of both conventional and artificial intelligence(AI)-based integration approaches.We also highlight the need for intelligence in resources integration.Then,we discuss the integration of sensing and communication(ISAC)and classify the integration approaches into various classes.Finally,we propose open challenges and present future research directions for beyond 5G networks,such as 6G.

Tasks-Oriented Joint Resource Allocation Scheme for the Internet of Vehicles with Sensing, Communication and Computing Integration

With the development of artificial intelligence(AI)and 5G technology,the integration of sensing,communication and computing in the Internet of Vehicles(Io V)is becoming a trend.However,the large amount of data transmission and the computing requirements of intelligent tasks lead to the complex resource management problems.In view of the above challenges,this paper proposes a tasks-oriented joint resource allocation scheme(TOJRAS)in the scenario of Io V.First,this paper proposes a system model with sensing,communication,and computing integration for multiple intelligent tasks with different requirements in the Io V.Secondly,joint resource allocation problems for real-time tasks and delay-tolerant tasks in the Io V are constructed respectively,including communication,computing and caching resources.Thirdly,a distributed deep Q-network(DDQN)based algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization problems,and the convergence and complexity of the algorithm are discussed.Finally,the experimental results based on real data sets verify the performance advantages of the proposed resource allocation scheme,compared to the existing ones.The exploration efficiency of our proposed DDQN-based algorithm is improved by at least about 5%,and our proposed resource allocation scheme improves the m AP performance by about 0.15 under resource constraints.

Joint Active and Passive Beamforming Design for Hybrid RIS-Aided Integrated Sensing and Communication

Integrated sensing and communication(ISAC) is considered an effective technique to solve spectrum congestion in the future. In this paper, we consider a hybrid reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS)-assisted downlink ISAC system that simultaneously serves multiple single-antenna communication users and senses multiple targets. Hybrid RIS differs from fully passive RIS in that it is composed of both active and passive elements, with the active elements having the effect of amplifying the signal in addition to phase-shifting. We maximize the achievable sum rate of communication users by collaboratively improving the beamforming matrix at the dual function base station(DFBS) and the phase-shifting matrix of the hybrid RIS, subject to the transmit power constraint at the DFBS, the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio(SINR) constraint of the radar echo signal and the RIS constraint are satisfied at the same time. The builtin RIS-assisted ISAC design problem model is significantly non-convex due to the fractional objective function of this optimization problem and the coupling of the optimization variables in the objective function and constraints. As a result, we provide an effective alternating optimization approach based on fractional programming(FP) with block coordinate descent(BCD)to solve the optimization variables. Results from simulations show that the hybrid RIS-assisted ISAC system outperforms the other benchmark solutions.

Channel estimation in integrated radar and communication systems with power amplifier distortion

To reduce the negative impact of the power amplifier(PA)nonlinear distortion caused by the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM)waveform with high peak-to-average power ratio(PAPR)in integrated radar and communication(RadCom)systems is studied,the channel estimation in passive sensing scenarios.Adaptive channel estimation methods are proposed based on different pilot patterns,considering nonlinear distortion and channel sparsity.The proposed methods achieve sparse channel results by manipulating the least squares(LS)frequency-domain channel estimation results to preserve the most significant taps.The decision-aided method is used to optimize the sparse channel results to reduce the effect of nonlinear distortion.Numerical results show that the channel estimation performance of the proposed methods is better than that of the conventional methods under different pilot patterns.In addition,the bit error rate performance in communication and passive radar detection performance show that the proposed methods have good comprehensive performance.

Trajectory Tracking for MmWave Communication Systems via Cooperative Passive Sensing

A cooperative passive sensing framework for millimeter wave(mmWave)communication systems is proposed and demonstrated in a scenario with one mobile signal blocker.Specifically,in the uplink communication with at least two transmitters,a cooperative detection method is proposed for the receiver to track the blocker’s trajectory,localize the transmitters and detect the potential link blockage jointly.To facilitate detection,the receiver collects the signal of each transmitter along a line-of-sight(LoS)path and a non-line-of-sight(NLoS)path separately via two narrow-beam phased arrays.The NLoS path involves scattering at the mobile blocker,allowing its identification through the Doppler frequency.By comparing the received signals of both paths,the Doppler frequency and angle-of-arrival(AoA)of the NLoS path can be estimated.To resolve the blocker’s trajectory and the transmitters’locations,the receiver should continuously track the mobile blocker to accumulate sufficient numbers of the Doppler frequency and AoA versus time observations.Finally,a gradient-descent-based algorithm is proposed for joint detection.With the reconstructed trajectory,the potential link blockage can be predicted.It is demonstrated that the system can achieve decimeterlevel localization and trajectory estimation,and predict the blockage time with an error of less than 0.1 s.

Sensing and Communication Integrated Fast Neighbor Discovery for UAV Networks

In unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)networks,the high mobility of nodes leads to frequent changes in network topology,which brings challenges to the neighbor discovery(ND)for UAV networks.Integrated sensing and communication(ISAC),as an emerging technology in 6G mobile networks,has shown great potential in improving communication performance with the assistance of sensing information.ISAC obtains the prior information about node distribution,reducing the ND time.However,the prior information obtained through ISAC may be imperfect.Hence,an ND algorithm based on reinforcement learning is proposed.The learning automaton(LA)is applied to interact with the environment and continuously adjust the probability of selecting beams to accelerate the convergence speed of ND algorithms.Besides,an efficient ND algorithm in the neighbor maintenance phase is designed,which applies the Kalman filter to predict node movement.Simulation results show that the LA-based ND algorithm reduces the ND time by up to 32%compared with the Scan-Based Algorithm(SBA),which proves the efficiency of the proposed ND algorithms.

Integrated Sensing and Communication:Who Benefits More?

This paper compares the benefits of communication-assisted sensing and sensing-assisted communication in the context of integrated sensing and communication(ISAC).Communication-assisted sensing leverages the extensive cellular infrastructure to create a vast and cooperative sensor network,enhancing environmental perception accuracy and coverage.On the other hand,sensing-assisted communication utilizes advanced sensing technologies to improve predictive beamforming and channel estimation performance in high-frequency and highmobility scenarios,thereby increasing communication efficiency and reliability.To validate our analysis,we present an example of channel knowledge map(CKM)-assisted beam tracking.This example demonstrates the practical advantages of incorporating CKM in enhancing beam tracking accuracy.Our analysis confirms that communication-assisted sensing may offer greater development potential due to its wide coverage and cost-effectiveness in large-scale applications.

Architecture for Cellular Enabled Integrated Communication and Sensing Services

There is growing interest in the integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)to extend the 5G+/6G network capabilities by introducing sensing capability.While the solutions for mono-static or bi-static ISAC have shown feasibility and benefits based on existing 5G physical layer design,whether and how to coordinate multiple ISAC devices to better exert networking performance are rarely discussed.3 rd Partnership Project(3GPP)has initiated the ISAC use cases study,and the follow-up studies for network architecture could be anticipated.In this article,we focus on gNB-based sensing mode and propose ISAC functional framework with given of highlevel service procedures to enable cellular based ISAC services.In the proposed ISAC framework,three types of network functions for sensing service as Sensing Function(SF),lightweight-Edge Sensing Function(ESF)and full-version-ESF are designed with interaction with network nodes to fulfill the latency requirements of ISAC use cases.Finally,with simulation evaluations and hardware testbed results,we further verify the performance benefit and feasibility to enable ISAC in 5G for the gNB-based sensing mode with new design on SF and related signaling protocols.

Asymptotic Performance Limits of Vehicular Location and Velocity Detection Towards 6G mmWave Integrated Communication and Sensing

In this paper,joint location and velocity estimation(JLVE)of vehicular terminals for 6G integrated communication and sensing(ICAS)is studied.We aim to provide a unified performance analysis framework for ICAS-based JLVE,which is challenging due to random fading,multipath interference,and complexly coupled system models,and thus the impact of channel fading and multipath interference on JLVE performance is not fully understood.To address this challenge,we exploit structured information models of the JLVE problem to render tractable performance quantification.Firstly,an individual closedform Cramer-Rao lower bound for vehicular localization,velocity detection and channel estimation,respectively,is established for gaining insights into performance limits of ICAS-based JLVE.Secondly,the impact of system resource factors and fading environments,e.g.,system bandwidth,the number of subcarriers,carrier frequency,antenna array size,transmission distance,spatial channel correlation,channel covariance,the number of interference paths and noise power,on the JLVE performance is theoretically analyzed.The associated closed-form JLVE performance analysis can not only provide theoretical foundations for ICAS receiver design but also provide a perfor mance benchmark for various JLVE methods。

Integrated Sensing and Communication Enabled Multiple Beamwidth and Power Allocation for Connected Automated Vehicles

Connected autonomous vehicles(CAVs)are a promising paradigm for implementing intelligent transportation systems.However,in CAVs scenarios,the sensing blind areas cause serious safety hazards.Existing vehicle-to-vehicle(V2V)technology is difficult to break through the sensing blind area and ensure reliable sensing information.To overcome these problems,considering infrastructures as a means to extend the sensing range is feasible based on the integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)technology.The mmWave base station(mmBS)transmits multiple beams consisting of communication beams and sensing beams.The sensing beams are responsible for sensing objects within the CAVs blind area,while the communication beams are responsible for transmitting the sensed information to the CAVs.To reduce the impact of inter-beam interference,a joint multiple beamwidth and power allocation(JMBPA)algorithm is proposed.By maximizing the communication transmission rate under the sensing constraints.The proposed non-convex optimization problem is transformed into a standard difference of two convex functions(D.C.)problem.Finally,the superiority of the lutions.The average transmission rate of communication beams remains over 3.4 Gbps,showcasing a significant improvement compared to other algorithms.Moreover,the satisfaction of sensing services remains steady.

Cognitive J^(2)SAC:Joint Jamming,Sensing,and Communication Under Antagonistic Environment

Integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)is regarded as a recent advanced technology,which is expected to realize the dual functions of sensing and communication simultaneously in one system.Nevertheless,it still faces the challenges of the information security and transmission robustness caused by the openness of wireless channel,especially under antagonistic environment.Hence,this article develops a generalized framework,named cognitive joint jamming,sensing and communication(cognitive J2SAC),to empower the current sensing/communication/jamming system with a“brain”for realizing precise sensing,reliable communication and effective jamming under antagonistic environment.Three kinds of gains can be captured by cognitive J2SAC,including integrated gain,cooperative gain and cognitive gain.Moreover,we highlight the enabling mechanism among jamming,sensing,and communication,as well as illustrating several typical use cases of cognitive J2SAC.Furthermore,several key enabled technologies are analyzed and a typical sensing enhance integrated communication and jamming case study is discussed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.Last but not the least,the future directions are listed before concluding this article.Integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)is regarded as a recent advanced technology,which is expected to realize the dual functions of sensing and communication simultaneously in one system.Nevertheless,it still faces the challenges of the information security and transmission robustness caused by the openness of wireless channel,especially under antagonistic environment.Hence,this article develops a generalized framework,named cognitive joint jamming,sensing and communication(cognitive J2SAC),to empower the current sensing/communication/jamming system with a“brain”for realizing precise sensing,reliable communication and effective jamming under antagonistic environment.Three kinds of gains can be captured by cognitive J2SAC,including integrated gain,cooperative gain and cognitive gain.Moreover,we highlight the enabling mechanism among jamming,sensing,and communication,as well as illustrating several typical use cases of cognitive J2SAC.Furthermore,several key enabled technologies are analyzed and a typical sensing enhance integrated communication and jamming case study is discussed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.Last but not the least,the future directions are listed before concluding this article.

High-Precision Doppler Frequency Estimation Based Positioning Using OTFS Modulations by Red and Blue Frequency Shift Discriminator

Orthogonal Time Frequency and Space(OTFS) modulation is expected to provide high-speed and ultra-reliable communications for emerging mobile applications, including low-orbit satellite communications. Using the Doppler frequency for positioning is a promising research direction on communication and navigation integration. To tackle the high Doppler frequency and low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) in satellite communication, this paper proposes a Red and Blue Frequency Shift Discriminator(RBFSD) based on the pseudo-noise(PN) sequence.The paper derives that the cross-correlation function on the Doppler domain exhibits the characteristic of a Sinc function. Therefore, it applies modulation onto the Delay-Doppler domain using PN sequence and adjusts Doppler frequency estimation by red-shifting or blue-shifting. Simulation results show that the performance of Doppler frequency estimation is close to the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound when the SNR is greater than -15dB. The proposed algorithm is about 1/D times less complex than the existing PN pilot sequence algorithm, where D is the resolution of the fractional Doppler.

Joint Design of ISAC Waveform Under PAPR Constraints

In this paper,we formulate the precoding problem of integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)waveform as a non-convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming(QCQP),in which the weighted sum of communication multi-user interference(MUI)and the gap between dual-use waveform and ideal radar waveform is minimized with peak-toaverage power ratio(PAPR)constraints.We propose an efficient algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers(ADMM),which is able to decouple multiple variables and provide a closed-form solution for each subproblem.In addition,to improve the sensing performance in both spatial and temporal domains,we propose a new criteria to design the ideal radar waveform,in which the beam pattern is made similar to the ideal one and the integrated sidelobe level of the ambiguity function in each target direction is minimized in the region of interest.The limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno(LBFGS)algorithm is applied to the design of the ideal radar waveform which works as a reference in the design of the dual-function waveform.Numerical results indicate that the designed dual-function waveform is capable of offering good communication quality of service(QoS)and sensing performance.

Sensing-Assisted Accurate and Fast Beam Management for Cellular-Connected mmWave UAV Network

Beam management,including initial access(IA)and beam tracking,is essential to the millimeter-wave Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)network.However,the conventional communicationonly and feedback-based schemes suffer a high delay and low accuracy of beam alignment,since they only enable the receiver to passively“hear”the information of the transmitter from the radio domain.This paper presents a novel sensing-assisted beam management approach,the first solution that fully utilizes the information from the visual domain to improve communication performance.We employ both integrated sensing and communication and computer vision techniques and design an extended Kalman filtering method for beam tracking and prediction.Besides,we also propose a novel dual identity association solution to distinguish multiple UAVs in dynamic environments.Real-world experiments and numerical results show that the proposed solution outperforms the conventional methods in IA delay,association accuracy,tracking error,and communication performance.

Kullback-Leibler Divergence Based ISAC Constellation and Beamforming Design in the Presence of Clutter

Integrated sensing and communication(ISAC)is regarded as a pivotal technology for 6G communication.In this paper,we employ Kullback-Leibler divergence(KLD)as the unified performance metric for ISAC systems and investigate constellation and beamforming design in the presence of clutters.In particular,the constellation design problem is solved via the successive convex approximation(SCA)technique,and the optimal beamforming in terms of sensing KLD is proven to be equivalent to maximizing the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio(SINR)of echo signals.Numerical results demonstrate the tradeoff between sensing and communication performance under different parameter setups.Additionally,the beampattern generated by the proposed algorithm achieves significant clutter suppression and higher SINR of echo signals compared with the conventional scheme.

Design of integrated radar and communication system based on MIMO-OFDM waveform

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform enables radar and communication functions simultaneously, which encounters low angle resolution and poor data rate for traditional single input single output (SISO) systems. To solve these problems, an integrated radar and communication system (IRCS) with multiple input multiple output (MIMO) OFDM waveform is proposed. The different limitations of radar and communication in designing such a system are investigated. Then, an optimization problem is devised to obtain suitable system parameters, including the number of subcarriers, subcarrier spacing, number of symbols, pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and length of cyclic prefix (CP). Finally, to satisfy the requirements of both radar and communication, the IRCS parameters are derived in three typical cases. Several numerical results are presented to illustrate the demands of radar and communication, inconsistent or consistent, for the IRCS parameters and the superiority of the proposed system.

The Spread Spectrum GFDM Schemes for Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Communication System

Recently, integrated Satellite-Terrestrial(S-T) communication system, especially the integration of satellite communication with 5G/6G, is regarded as a research hotpot. Future integrated S-T communication systems are demanding a more compatible and robust physical layer waveform. Considering physical layer access waveform design, this paper proposed a novel Spread Spectrum Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing(SS-GFDM) scheme for integrated S-T communication system. Traditional GFDM has many advantages such as excellent adaptability and low out-ofband(OOB) radiation. However, because of intrinsic inter carrier interference(ICI) and low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), the multiple access performance is degraded. In this paper, we introduced CDMA technology into GFDM. Two different spread spectrum modes, Cyclic Code Shift Keying(CCSK) soft spread spectrum and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum(DSSS), are considered and compared in this paper to illustrate the benefits of GFDM-CDMA in low SNR scenario. Moreover, this scheme integrates the slot-ALOHA protocol with GFDM-CDMA, which extends access freedom in frequency, time and code domain. The simulation and analysis results show that the proposed GFDM-CDMA scheme reduces the performance degradation caused by interference. It is effective in typical satellite channel with low complexity. Meanwhile, the peak-average-power-ratio(PAPR) and access performance has been enhanced significantly.

Create Your Own Data and Energy Integrated Communication Network:A Brief Tutorial and a Prototype System

In order to satisfy the ever-increasing energy appetite of the massive battery-powered and batteryless communication devices,radio frequency(RF)signals have been relied upon for transferring wireless power to them.The joint coordination of wireless power transfer(WPT)and wireless information transfer(WIT)yields simultaneous wireless information and power transfer(SWIPT)as well as data and energy integrated communication network(DEIN).However,as a promising technique,few efforts are invested in the hardware implementation of DEIN.In order to make DEIN a reality,this paper focuses on hardware implementation of a DEIN.It firstly provides a brief tutorial on SWIPT,while summarising the latest hardware design of WPT transceiver and the existing commercial solutions.Then,a prototype design in DEIN with full protocol stack is elaborated,followed by its performance evaluation.

Performance Trade-off for Integrated Communication and Data-Assisted Positioning in MIMO-OFDM System

Communication and positioning,the two pillars of mobile communication systems,are currently being integrated together.The development of communication technologies is the driving force of the positioning progress.In turn,the location information provided by positioning improves the communication performance in various ways.However,the competition of these two functions in terms of resource allocation is a critical issue hindering their integration.In this article,we investigate the trade-off for the integrated communication and data-assisted positioning in multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems.A data-assisted positioning method is designed first,which uses both positioning reference signals(PRSs)and data signals for positioning.The positioning and communication performance are theoretically evaluated respectively,then combined to obtain an integrated performance metric.The trade-off is analyzed and the integrated performance is optimized considering the priority of different functions.Numerical simulations show that the data-assisted positioning can not only improve the positioning accuracy,but also reduce the PRS overhead.And the established integrated performance metric can identify the optimal performance and the corresponding resource allocation schemes.

Retail Brand Building Through Promotional Communication： A Study That Focuses on Category Killers Promotional Flyers

Strong competition in retail distribution and the development of new purchasing options for the consumer generate a growing need to strengthen the retailers＇ brand image using all the communication elements, with promotional flyers being one of the most important ways to do this. Promotional flyers make-up 5.1% of the money spent on communication and rank third place in terms of importance for retailers. The aim of this investigation work is to focus on analysing the utility of a promotional tool, such as a flyer, to fulfil a strategic objective, like creating a retail brand image, within a modern dynamic sector that is growing fast, such as Category Killers. Two sources of information have been used to carry out the research. On the One hand, a survey conducted on those responsible for the definition and execution of the promotional plan, and on the other hand, the accumulation and analysis of all the flyers issued into the market thought-out a year by those retailers which belong to this format, in order to conduct a study of seven defined image indicators. This information has been largely analyzed using multidimensional scaling method and chi-square test. As a result, we have managed to gather the differential elements in flyers execution between those retailers that prize the communications of image attributes and those retailers which concentrate on communicating price. The first group makes greater use of promotional theme related flyers, and shows greater differentiation in both product assortment and the depth of the range being communicated.