With the extremely large-scale array XL-array deployed in future wireless systems, wireless communication and sensing are expected to operate in the radiative near-field region, which needs to be characterized by the spherical rather than planar wavefronts. Unlike most existing works that considered far-field integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), we study in this article the new near-field ISAC, which integrates both functions of sensing and communication in the near-field region. To this end, we first discuss the appealing advantages of near-field communication and sensing over their far-field counterparts, respectively. Then, we introduce three approaches for near-field ISAC, including joint near-field communication and sensing, sensing-assisted near-field communication, and communication-assisted near-field sensing. We discuss their individual research opportunities, new design issues, as well as propose promising solutions. Finally, several important directions in near-field ISAC are also highlighted to motivate future work.
@article{arxiv.2310.01342,
title = {Near-field Integrated Sensing and Communication: Opportunities and Challenges},
author = {Jiayi Cong and Changsheng You and Jiapeng Li and Li Chen and Beixiong Zheng and Yuanwei Liu and Wen Wu and Yi Gong and Shi Jin and Rui Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.01342},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
This work has been accpeted by IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine