A unified technical perspective is provided on current standardization choices, their implementation tradeoffs, and the open challenges shaping network-grade sensing by connecting the evolving 3GPP architecture and radio studies across 5G-Advanced and 6G.
Abstract
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) extends mobile networks from information transfer toward perception of passive objects and environments. By exploiting propagation delay, Doppler, angle, and temporal variation, a mobile network can support detection and tracking while reusing licensed spectrum, infrastructure, and edge computing at network scale and under operator control. Unlike conventional radar, ISAC must additionally address multi-application access, heterogeneous sensing entities, uncertainty, privacy, trust, and integration with communication services. This article reviews the evolution of ISAC in 3GPP from 5G-Advanced to 6G. It explains Release-19 ISAC service requirements and channel models, the Release-20 sensing function architecture and reporting abstractions, and the 5G monostatic baseline for drone detection and tracking. It also examines 6G-native sensing, including passive object sensing, communication assistance, multiple sensing modes, and multi-source data integration. By connecting the evolving 3GPP architecture and radio studies across 5G-Advanced and 6G, this article provides a unified technical perspective on current standardization choices, their implementation tradeoffs, and the open challenges shaping network-grade sensing.
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is emerging as an important direction in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) evolution toward 6G because it allows cellular networks to provide environmental awareness in addition to connectivity. This paper surveys the current 3GPP trajectory from Release~19 feasibility studies to Release~20 radio, protocol, and architecture studies, while distinguishing established requirements, ongoing study assumptions, and possible forward directions. The survey covers service requirements, sensing topologies, channel model evolution beyond 3GPP Technical Report (TR)~38.901, Radio Access Network Working Group~1 (RAN1) physical layer design, Radio Access Network Working Groups~2 and~3 (RAN2 and RAN3) system implications, and the role of sensing-assisted communication. It also synthesizes the main unresolved issues in waveform and reference signal design, multi-node coordination, sensing data reporting, service exposure, privacy, and implementation constraints. By connecting service-level motivations to physical layer, protocol, and architecture implications, the paper provides a standards-centric reading of how 3GPP may evolve toward practical 6G ISAC support.
Integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) is emerging as a major architectural direction for next-generation wireless systems. By jointly designing environmental sensing and wireless data transmission within a unified framework, ISAC offers the potential for simultaneous gains in spectral efficiency, hardware reuse, energy efficiency, and situational awareness. This paper provides a comprehensive research roadmap for ISAC, tracing its evolution from radar–communication coexistence to dual-function radar–communication architectures, networked sensing infrastructures, and perceptive sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. The survey is organized around five pillars: information-theoretic foundations, physical-layer design, networked operation, enabling platform technologies, and application domains. It further examines emerging regimes and deployment extensions that challenge conventional assumptions, including near-field operation, terahertz systems, AI-native transceivers, reconfigurable and digital-twin-assisted environments, low-power and backscatter-based sensing, and non-terrestrial ISAC. Across these topics, the paper identifies open gaps, formulates a unified set of grand research challenges, reviews representative prototype and measurement-oriented studies, and outlines both near-term deployment paths and longer-horizon transformative directions. The goal is to provide a coherent reference and roadmap for the continued development of ISAC as a foundation for future wireless, sensing, and cyber-physical systems.
I. F. Akyildiz, Shih-Chun Lin· IEEE Access· 0 citations
In recent years, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has attracted significant attention towards future cellular networks. Currently, various works have demonstrated sensing performance in existing wireless communication systems. Most of the demonstrations are based on passive type due to the radio regulatory. However, because of the difficulty in access to the communication protocol stacks in commercial cellular systems, the evaluation of the cellular communication signals for semi-cooperative passive ISAC is limited. In this paper, a semi-cooperative passive ISAC system is developed with open-source 5G framework and software-defined radio devices. And the performance is experimentally evaluated by utilizing the physical layer information of actual 5G signals from the developed system. In this system, communication is established with 5G signals and physical layer information are obtained and extracted for analysis. The performance of the system is verified by conducting experiments under several communication scenarios including the synchronization, pinging, and data transmission. Different physical layer information is collected, and the propagation characteristics are analyzed by a multi-path configuration. The experiment results demonstrated that variable bandwidths were utilized for different communication scenarios and the multipath was successfully detected with two different approaches. These results show that the developed system is promising for semi-cooperative passive ISAC in wider application fields
Distinct from conventional integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) techniques, breakthroughs in LoRa-aided ISAC achieve hardware-unified sensing and communication capabilities for low-power devices. By combining such a novel technology with wireless power transfer (WPT), it yields wireless powered sensing and communication networks (WPSCNs). Information fusion, a widely adopted technique in such networks, relies heavily on the fresh fused information for effective system decision-making. However, age of information (AoI) is ineffective for measuring freshness of fused information. To tackle this dilemma, a novel metric, age of sensing (AoS), is introduced. Specifically, we study timeliness of a WPSCN, where a fusion center (FC) wirelessly powers sensing nodes (SNs) to collect sensing information from the SNs for generating fused information. Moreover, the impact of multi-cycle sensing on the AoS is first explored in the WPSCNs. We also adopt the adaptive transmission strategy for flexibly reducing the transmission duration. After obtaining a closed-form of the average AoS, it is then minimised by optimising WPT duration, multi-cycle sensing strategy and the SN locations. Ultimately, the numerical results validate the accuracy of our theoretical analysis. The effect of multi-cycle sensing and the superiority of adaptive transmission strategy are also demonstrated. Our findings offer valuable insights for analysing and improving the fusion system timeliness, and provide a theoretical foundation for the practical deployment of the WPSCNs.
Ya-Li Zheng, Shuai Shen, Ziye Xiang et al.· IEEE Transactions on Communi...· 0 citations
The vision of ubiquitous battery-free connectivity has positioned backscatter communication as a foundational technology for next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial sensing applications. However, as backscatter systems evolve from simple identification tags toward high-fidelity integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) devices, fundamental challenges emerge at the intersection of waveform design, hardware nonlinearity, and channel dynamics. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of sensing-aware backscatter communications, with a focus on three tightly coupled dimensions: envelope stability, spatial diversity, and temporal channel robustness. We introduce the concept of the ``Illuminator's Dilemma''to describe the inherent conflict between high-peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) multicarrier waveforms optimized for active communication and the stringent dynamic range requirements of passive tags. The survey provides a unified treatment of multi-objective waveform design strategies, a comprehensive taxonomy of near-far mitigation techniques, and an in-depth analysis of channel state information (CSI) aging in backscatter networks. Key contributions include tag-centric metrics such as the Backscatter Crest Factor (BCF), Envelope Stability Factor (ESF), and Sensing Fidelity Index (SFI), along with a comparative evaluation of PAPR reduction techniques, spatial diversity methods, and non-coherent detection schemes. This survey is intended for researchers, engineers, and graduate students working in wireless communications, IoT, RF sensing, and integrated sensing and communications.
Rahul Gulia, Priyanka Mann, Ashish Sheikh et al.· 0 citations
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