The objective of the GKS-6G research group is to develop key technologies for ISAC applications in the industrial environment, in particular for the 5G and future 6G mobile communications standard. The focus here is on signal processing for radio sensing, which is used to evaluate the reflections of the radio signal on objects and enables conclusions to be drawn about their position and movement (speed). In particular, bi-static radio sensing between one or more base stations and the end device will be considered. An important component is the acquisition and processing of the parameters of the radio channel (so-called channel state information, CSI) at the terminal device and their signaling to the base station.
Current CSI procedures in the 5G standard do not yet have ISAC functionalities and must therefore be expanded accordingly. New approaches based on artificial intelligence (AI) in the so-called Doppler delay range are to be developed for this purpose. This will enable efficient calculation of the spatial multipath propagation of the environment. The existing reference signals in the 5G standard are particularly unsuitable for determining the Doppler components of the CSI. It is therefore necessary to develop new reference signals for the mobile radio standard and their configurations that meet the various ISAC requirements in different environments (industry, vehicle, indoor, outdoor).
In addition to CSI estimation, the prediction of CSI using AI methods to predict object trajectories is also being investigated. This enables completely new applications, for example in the vehicle sector for predictive collision avoidance of objects. Based on this work, concepts and solutions for distributed and cooperative radio sensing between different terminals as well as for AI-based data fusion of the signaled CSI from the terminals to the base station for environment detection and optimization of radio resources (time, frequency and space) for ISAC are being developed.
Based on cooperative radio sensing, extensions of the beam management procedures of the 5G mobile radio standard are being investigated in order to transmit the radio signals spatially to the terminals or to the reflectors (objects in the environment) in the radio channel using antenna arrays at the base station.
A key objective of the research group is to develop a standard-compliant ISAC reference software platform based on the existing 5G standard. This platform will be used to evaluate the concepts and solutions developed. It will be made available to Thuringian companies and research institutions, whereby its design will be geared towards their requirements. It will also be used to develop software components for ISAC applications in the 5G and future 6G environment. With the new expertise to be created, the research group aims to become a point of contact for local companies in the field of ISAC. In addition to providing technical advice to these companies, the focus is on active participation in standardization committees and feeding specific requirements from Thuringian companies into the standardization process.
