DoD grants aim to unify sensing, communication systems
DoD grants aim to unify sensing, communication systems
Associate Professor Besma Smida and Assistant Professor Aritra Banerjee received a U.S. Department of Defense grant to unify sensing and communications systems.
Smida’s research focuses on wireless communication theory, full-duplex communication, radar, and backscatter modulation. Banerjee focuses on the design of radio frequency, millimeter wave, and sub-terahertz integrated circuits and systems for wireless communication and radar.
Sensing and communication are similar yet traditionally separated wireless systems. Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) systems can allow communication infrastructure, such as wireless networks, to not only transmit and receive data but also to perceive the surrounding environment. By merging sensing and communication into a single system, performance gains can be made by facilitating direct tradeoffs between them.
The integration of sensing and communication is critically important and has many uses and applications including, mobile combat systems. This integration forms an environment-aware network that is able to track objects and their locations. The sensing functionality and the corresponding ability of the network to collect sensory data from the environment enable learning of the rapidly changing combat environment. This system can be used for tracking drones and other vehicles and protecting critical infrastructure.
Traditionally, ISAC systems shared the spectrum between radar and communication with minimum or no interference, or used radar waveforms for both communication and sensing. But both approaches have low spectrum efficiency.
Smida and Banerjee propose using the full-duplex technique over the same frequency bandwidth for integrating sensing and communication.
Full-duplex is a technique where the signal can be sent and received at the same time and at the same frequency. This technique eliminates the need for separating the transmit and the receive signal by time or frequency to avoid interference. Instead, the full-duplex system removes the self-interference signal that originates from the transmitter to the receiver side during full-duplex operation.
Smida and Banerjee will develop the theory, algorithms, and integrated circuit implementation of full-duplex ISAC at millimeter-wave frequencies utilizing a beamformer and self-interference cancellers in the analog and digital domains. This approach will maximize sensing and communication performance and improve spectral and energy efficiency.
The award runs from May 1 through April 30, 2029.