Co-Design of Sensing, Communications, and Control for Low-Altitude Wireless Networks

The rapid advancement of Internet of Things (IoT) services and the evolution toward the sixth generation (6G) have positioned unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as critical enablers of low-altitude wireless networks (LAWNs). This work investigates the co-design of integrated sensing, communication, and control ($\mathbf{SC^{2}}$) for multi-UAV cooperative systems with finite blocklength (FBL) transmission. In particular, the UAVs continuously monitor the state of the field robots and transmit their observations to the robot controller to ensure stable control while cooperating to localize an unknown sensing target (ST). To this end, a weighted optimization problem is first formulated by jointly considering the control and localization performance in terms of the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) cost and the determinant of the Fisher information matrix (FIM), respectively. The resultant problem, optimizing resource allocations, the UAVs' deployment positions, and multi-user scheduling, is non-convex. To circumvent this challenge, we first derive a closed-form expression of the LQR cost with respect to other variables. Subsequently, the non-convex optimization problem is decomposed into a series of sub-problems by leveraging the alternating optimization (AO) approach, in which the difference of convex functions (DC) programming and projected gradient descent (PGD) method are employed to obtain an efficient near-optimal solution. Furthermore, the convergence and computational complexity of the proposed algorithm are thoroughly analyzed. Extensive simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of our proposed approach compared to the benchmark schemes and reveal the trade-off between control and sensing performance.

Movable Antennas Meet Low-Altitude Wireless Networks: Fundamentals, Opportunities, and Future Directions

With the rapid development of low-altitude applications, there is an increasing demand for low-altitude wireless networks (LAWNs) to simultaneously achieve high-rate communication, precise sensing, and reliable control in the low-altitude airspace. In this paper, we first present a typical system architecture of LAWNs, which integrates three core functionalities: communication, sensing, and control. Subsequently, we explore the promising prospects of movable antenna (MA)-assisted wireless communications, with emphasis on its potential in flexible beamforming, interference management, and spatial multiplexing gain. Furthermore, we elaborate on the integrated communication, sensing, and control capabilities enabled by MAs in LAWNs, and illustrate their effectiveness through representative examples. A case study demonstrates that MA-enabled LAWNs achieve significant performance improvements over traditional fixed-position antenna-based LAWNs in terms of communication throughput, sensing accuracy, and control stability. Finally, we outline several promising directions for future research, including the MA-assisted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication/sensing, the MA-assisted reliable control, and the MA-enhanced physical layer security.

Multimodal Large Language Models-Enabled UAV Swarm: Towards Efficient and Intelligent Autonomous Aerial Systems

Recent breakthroughs in multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have endowed AI systems with unified perception, reasoning and natural-language interaction across text, image and video streams. Meanwhile, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarms are increasingly deployed in dynamic, safety-critical missions that demand rapid situational understanding and autonomous adaptation. This paper explores potential solutions for integrating MLLMs with UAV swarms to enhance the intelligence and adaptability across diverse tasks. Specifically, we first outline the fundamental architectures and functions of UAVs and MLLMs. Then, we analyze how MLLMs can enhance the UAV system performance in terms of target detection, autonomous navigation, and multi-agent coordination, while exploring solutions for integrating MLLMs into UAV systems. Next, we propose a practical case study focused on the forest fire fighting. To fully reveal the capabilities of the proposed framework, human-machine interaction, swarm task planning, fire assessment, and task execution are investigated. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future research directions for the MLLMs-enabled UAV swarm. An experiment illustration video could be found online at https://youtu.be/zwnB9ZSa5A4.

From Ground to Sky: Architectures, Applications, and Challenges Shaping Low-Altitude Wireless Networks

In this article, we introduce a novel low-altitude wireless network (LAWN), which is a reconfigurable, three-dimensional (3D) layered architecture. In particular, the LAWN integrates connectivity, sensing, control, and computing across aerial and terrestrial nodes that enable seamless operation in complex, dynamic, and mission-critical environments. In this article, we introduce a novel low-altitude wireless network (LAWN), which is a reconfigurable, three-dimensional (3D) layered architecture. Different from the conventional aerial communication systems, LAWN's distinctive feature is its tight integration of functional planes in which multiple functionalities continually reshape themselves to operate safely and efficiently in the low-altitude sky. With the LAWN, we discuss several enabling technologies, such as integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), semantic communication, and fully-actuated control systems. Finally, we identify potential applications and key cross-layer challenges. This article offers a comprehensive roadmap for future research and development in the low-altitude airspace.

Faster-than-Nyquist Signaling is Good for Single-Carrier ISAC: An Analytical Study

In this paper, we provide an analytical study of single-carrier faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). Our derivations show that FTN is advantageous for ISAC, and reveal new insights that these advantages come from the fact that FTN signaling can effectively avoid the spectral aliasing due to the mismatch between the symbol rate and the bandwidth of the shaping pulse. Specifically, the communication spectral efficiency advantages of FTN signaling over time-invariant multipath channels are analytically shown, where both upper- and lower-bounds on the spectral efficiency are derived. We show that the gap between these two bounds corresponds to the potential signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) variation due to the presence of multipath delay and spectral aliasing, which diminishes as the symbol rate grows higher. Particularly, in the limiting case, this SNR variation disappears while the degree of freedom (DoF) of the system attain the maximum. Furthermore, the sensing advantages for FTN signals are verified in terms of the expected normalized squared ambiguity function. We show that FTN signals generally enjoy a more robust ranging performance. More importantly, we prove that FTN signaling can effectively avoid the undesired peaks in the considered ambiguity function along the Doppler dimension, thereby reducing the ambiguities in velocity estimation. All these conclusions are explicitly verified by numerical results.

Towards Intelligent Edge Sensing for ISCC Network: Joint Multi-Tier DNN Partitioning and Beamforming Design

The combination of Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) enables devices to simultaneously sense the environment and offload data to the base stations (BS) for intelligent processing, thereby reducing local computational burdens. However, transmitting raw sensing data from ISAC devices to the BS often incurs substantial fronthaul overhead and latency. This paper investigates a three-tier collaborative inference framework enabled by Integrated Sensing, Communication, and Computing (ISCC), where cloud servers, MEC servers, and ISAC devices cooperatively execute different segments of a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) for intelligent sensing. By offloading intermediate DNN features, the proposed framework can significantly reduce fronthaul transmission load. Furthermore, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is employed to enhance both sensing quality and offloading efficiency. To minimize the overall sensing task inference latency across all ISAC devices, we jointly optimize the DNN partitioning strategy, ISAC beamforming, and computational resource allocation at the MEC servers and devices, subject to sensing beampattern constraints. We also propose an efficient two-layer optimization algorithm. In the inner layer, we derive closed-form solutions for computational resource allocation using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Moreover, we design the ISAC beamforming vectors via an iterative method based on the majorization-minimization and weighted minimum mean square error techniques. In the outer layer, we develop a cross-entropy based probabilistic learning algorithm to determine an optimal DNN partitioning strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework substantially outperforms existing two-tier schemes in inference latency.

Sensing With Random Communication Signals

Communication-centric Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) has been recognized as a promising methodology to implement wireless sensing functionality over existing network architectures, due to its cost-effectiveness and backward compatibility to legacy cellular systems. However, the inherent randomness of the communication signal may incur huge fluctuations in sensing capabilities, leading to unfavorable detection and estimation performance. To address this issue, we elaborate on random ISAC signal processing methods in this article, aiming at improving the sensing performance without unduly deteriorating the communication functionality. Specifically, we commence by discussing the fundamentals of sensing with random communication signals, including the performance metrics and optimal ranging waveforms. Building on these concepts, we then present a general framework for random ISAC signal transmission, followed by an in-depth exploration of time-domain pulse shaping, frequency-domain constellation shaping, and spatial-domain precoding methods. We provide a comprehensive overview of each of these topics, including models, results, and design guidelines. Finally, we conclude this article by identifying several promising research directions for random ISAC signal transmission.

Joint Design of Radar Receive Filter and Unimodular ISAC Waveform with Sidelobe Level Control

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has been considered a key feature of next-generation wireless networks. This paper investigates the joint design of the radar receive filter and dual-functional transmit waveform for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) ISAC system. While optimizing the mean square error (MSE) of the radar receive spatial response and maximizing the achievable rate at the communication receiver, besides the constraints of full-power radar receiving filter and unimodular transmit sequence, we control the maximum range sidelobe level, which is often overlooked in existing ISAC waveform design literature, for better radar imaging performance. To solve the formulated optimization problem with convex and nonconvex constraints, we propose an inexact augmented Lagrangian method (ALM) algorithm. For each subproblem in the proposed inexact ALM algorithm, we custom-design a block successive upper-bound minimization (BSUM) scheme with closed-form solutions for all blocks of variable to enhance the computational efficiency. Convergence analysis shows that the proposed algorithm is guaranteed to provide a stationary and feasible solution. Extensive simulations are performed to investigate the impact of different system parameters on communication and radar imaging performance. Comparison with the existing works shows the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

Deep Learning-based OTFS Channel Estimation and Symbol Detection with Plug and Play Framework

Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation has recently attracted significant interest due to its potential for enabling reliable communication in high-mobility environments. One of the challenges for OTFS receivers is the fractional Doppler that occurs in practical systems, resulting in decreased channel sparsity, and then inaccurate channel estimation and high-complexity equalization. In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised deep learning (DL)-based OTFS channel estimation and symbol detection scheme, capable of handling different channel conditions, even in the presence of fractional Doppler. In particular, we design a unified plug-and-play (PnP) framework, which can jointly exploit the flexibility of optimization-based methods and utilize the powerful data-driven capability of DL. A lightweight Unet is integrated into the framework as a powerful implicit channel prior for channel estimation, leading to better exploitation of the channel sparsity and the characteristic of the noise simultaneously. Furthermore, to mitigate the channel estimation errors, we realize the PnP framework with a fully connected (FC) network for symbol detection at different noise levels, thereby enhancing robustness. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm.

Uncovering the Iceberg in the Sea: Fundamentals of Pulse Shaping and Modulation Design for Random ISAC Signals

Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) is expected to play a pivotal role in future 6G networks. To maximize time-frequency resource utilization, 6G ISAC systems must exploit data payload signals, that are inherently random, for both communication and sensing tasks. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the sensing performance of such communication-centric ISAC signals, with a focus on modulation and pulse shaping design to reshape the statistical properties of their auto-correlation functions (ACFs), thereby improving the target ranging performance. We derive a closed-form expression for the expectation of the squared ACF of random ISAC signals, considering arbitrary modulation bases and constellation mappings within the Nyquist pulse shaping framework. The structure is metaphorically described as an ``iceberg hidden in the sea", where the ``iceberg'' represents the squared mean of the ACF of random ISAC signals, that is determined by the pulse shaping filter, and the ``sea level'' characterizes the corresponding variance, caused by the randomness of the data payload. Our analysis shows that, for QAM/PSK constellations with Nyquist pulse shaping, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) achieves the lowest ranging sidelobe level across all lags. Building on these insights, we propose a novel Nyquist pulse shaping design to enhance the sensing performance of random ISAC signals. Numerical results validate our theoretical findings, showing that the proposed pulse shaping significantly reduces ranging sidelobes compared to conventional root-raised cosine (RRC) pulse shaping, thereby improving the ranging performance.