Guest Editorial: Integrated Sensing and Communications for 6G

Abstract

6G networks have been envisioned as key enablers for numerous emerging applications, including smart cities and homes, intelligently connected vechiles, smart manufactoring, and industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT). These applications require both extreme wireless connectivity as well as highly accurate and reliable sensing capability. Indeed, among many 6G visions, a common theme is that sensing will play a more significant role than ever before. By equipping wireless systems with the sensing functionality, 6G networks will go beyond classical communication and provide ubiquitous sensing services to measure, or to image, surrounding environments. This sensing functionality and the corresponding ability of the network to collect sensory data from the environment are seen as the foundation for building intelligence in the future smart world. Toward that end, there is a strong need to jointly design sensing and communication operations in 6G networks, which motivates the recent research of Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC).