Joint sensing and communication (JSAC): Data-error detection using sensing

Future wireless applications require both communications and sensing on a single platform. In this context, the convergence of communications and sensing attracts research interests to benefit in terms of both spectrum efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

Along with several other research tracks, IMEC is active in research for radar, wireless communication, and JSAC which are expected to play a significant role in defining 6G and beyond services. 

In a JSAC system where a common waveform such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is used for communication and sensing, transmitted data aids to retrieve sensing information from the received waveform. Errors in the received data cause variations in the sensing information. Analysis of the retrieved sensing information can lead to improved communication performance in terms of bit error rate. 

Aim of the thesis 

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the frequency domain channel matrix which carries information representing the delay and speed of different targets in the radio channel. In the case of erroneous data used to construct the channel matrix, additional abrupt variations appear which are identifiable and may be used for error detection, leading to improved communication performance (BER). The work will be validated using MATLAB/Python simulation.    

Required qualifications: