Rotatable Array-Aided Hybrid Beamforming for Integrated Sensing and Communication

Abstract: Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is one of the pivotal supporting technologies for next-generation wireless communication networks. As an emerging technical means, the new six-dimensional movable antenna (6DMA) system can effectively improve the communication and sensing performance of ISAC systems. However, related research on the architecture based on three-dimensional rotatable antennas (RA) remains relatively limited. Especially under the influence of non-ideal channel characteristics, how to balance system performance and hardware cost control through beamforming technology in non-ideal channels has become a crucial issue to be solved urgently. Given the significant advantages of hybrid beamforming technology in balancing system performance and hardware complexity, this paper focuses on the channel model considering effective aperture loss under the RA architecture and studies the sub-connected hybrid beamforming design for multi-user ISAC systems. Aiming at the non-convex nature with coupled variables in this problem, this paper first transforms the complex fractional objective function using the Fractional Programming (FP) framework, and then proposes an algorithm based on the Alternating Optimization (AO) architecture, which achieves optimization by alternately solving five subproblems. Among them, the closed-form update expression of the array rotation angle is derived through the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, and a two-stage Gradient Ascent (GA) based method is proposed to optimize the antenna rotation angle. Simulation results show that compared with the traditional fixed-position antenna (FPA), the proposed method can significantly improve the overall performance of the system.