Symbiotic Sensing and Communications Towards 6G: Vision, Applications, and Technology Trends

Abstract

Driven by the vision of intelligent connection of everything and digital twin towards 6G, a myriad of new applications, such as immersive extended reality, autonomous driving, holographic communications, intelligent industrial internet, will emerge in the near future, holding the promise to revolutionize the way we live and work. These trends inspire a novel technical design principle that seamlessly integrates two originally decoupled functionalities, i.e., wireless communication and sensing, into one system in a symbiotic way, which is dubbed symbiotic sensing and communications (SSaC), to endow the wireless network with the capability to "see" and "talk" to the physical world simultaneously. Noting that the term SSaC is used instead of ISAC (integrated sensing and communications) because the word "symbiotic/symbiosis" is more inclusive and can better accommodate different integration levels and evolution stages of sensing and communications. Aligned with this understanding, this article makes the first attempts to clarify the concept of SSaC, illustrate its vision, envision the three-stage evolution roadmap, namely neutralism, commensalism, and mutualism of SaC. Then, three categories of applications of SSaC are introduced, followed by detailed description of typical use cases in each category. Finally, we summarize the major performance metrics and key enabling technologies for SSaC.

Vision, application scenarios, and key technology trends for 6G mobile communications

“…We envision that diversified new killer applications and services, such as autonomous driving, intelligent industrial, and intelligent healthcare, will be achieved and supported by 6G networks. These trends inspire novel technical design principles that seamlessly integrate two originally decoupled functionalities, i.e., wireless communication and sensing, into one system symbiotically, which is dubbed integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), to endow the 6G wireless network with the ability to "see" and "talk" to the physical world simultaneously [6]. Specifically, ISAC can utilize electromagnetic wave signals to wirelessly detect, localize, track, and image objects, recognize different activities or statuses, or even reconstruct the environments, and the sensing results can be used to enhance the performance of radio access and resource management in wireless communications.…”

5G PRS-Based Sensing: A Sensing Reference Signal Approach for Joint Sensing and Communication System

“…The 5th generation advanced (5G-A) and 6th generation (6G) mobile communication systems are expected to support novel services such as autonomous driving, extended reality (XR), and so forth [1], which will require powerful communication and sensing capabilities simultaneously. Wireless sensing, including positioning, velocity detection and imaging, has long been an independent technology developed in parallel with mobile communications.…”

Integrated Sensing and Communication Signals Toward 5G-A and 6G: A Survey

“…[23] reviews the development status and challenges of ISAC in the context of perceptive mobile networks. [24] analyzes the key technologies of ISAC signal in 6G from different application requirements. [25] proposes four typical use cases of ISAC, where the requirements of these use cases are analyzed in detail.…”