A Novel Waveform Design for OFDM-Based Joint Sensing and Communication System

Abstract: The dominating waveform in 5G is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM will remain a promising waveform candidate for joint communication and sensing (JCAS) in 6G since OFDM can provide excellent data transmission capability and accurate sensing information. This paper proposes a novel OFDM-based diagonal waveform structure and corresponding signal processing algorithm. This approach allocates the sensing signals along the diagonal of the time-frequency resource block. Therefore, the sensing signals in a linear structure span both the frequency and time domains. The range and velocity of the object can be estimated simultaneously by applying 1D-discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to the diagonal sensing signals. Compared to the conventional 2D-DFT OFDM radar algorithm, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is low. In addition, the sensing overhead can be substantially reduced. The performance of the proposed waveform is evaluated using simulation and analysis of results.