Doppler Ambiguity Elimination Using 5G Signals in Integrated Sensing and Communication

Abstract: The industrial point of view towards integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), the preference is to leverage existing resources and fifth-generation (5G) infrastructure to minimize deployment costs and complexity. In this context, we explore the utilization of current 5G new radio (NR) signals aligned with 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standards. Positioning reference signals (PRS) for sensing and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for communication have been chosen to form an ISAC framework. However, PRS-based sensing suffers from Doppler ambiguity when the Doppler frequency shift is severe. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel method within the ISAC system that leverages the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) present in PDSCH to eliminate Doppler ambiguity. Furthermore, we formulate a resource allocation problem between PRS and PDSCH to achieve a Pareto optimal point between communication and sensing without Doppler ambiguity. Through simulations and analysis, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method on joint DMRS-PRS exploitation in mitigating Doppler ambiguity and the efficiency of the resource allocation scheme in achieving Pareto optimality for ISAC within a 5G NR framework.