Integrated Sensing and Communication

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is poised to become a fundamental pillar of 6G, enabling seamless coexistence of communication and environmental awareness within a unified framework. By leveraging shared spectrum and shared hardware, ISAC supports a wide range of applications, including autonomous systems, smart infrastructure, and extended reality (XR). This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of ISAC, covering key architectural considerations, waveform and beamforming design, signal processing techniques, and hardware challenges. Various sensing configurations – monostatic, bistatic, and multi-static – are examined, alongside advanced self-interference (SI) suppression techniques for full-duplex ISAC nodes. The role of artificial intelligence (AI) and multi-modal sensing in optimizing ISAC performance is explored, as well as emerging waveform paradigms. While ISAC presents transformative opportunities, it also leads to new challenges in security, privacy, and standardization, necessitating further research and industry collaboration to realize its full potential in future wireless networks.