A low-complexity ISAC method for LFM-PSK signals using de-chirping and ISAC phase unwrapping techniques

Abstract

Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) has the potential to revolutionize wireless technology in areas such as autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, and unmanned aerial vehicle navigation technology. Nonetheless, conventional processing methods for Linear Frequency Modulation-Phase Shift Keying (LFM-PSK) signals predominantly depend on matched filtering, leading to high sampling rates and computational complexity. In response to these challenges, our research proposes a method to process LFM-PSK signals, which enables the use of de-chirping techniques. Applying the proposed ISAC unwrapping technique makes it possible to selectively recover the phase of the de-chirped LFM-PSK signal. Subsequently, the distance can be calculated by analyzing the slope of the recovered phase. Moreover, by adjusting the threshold in the ISAC unwrapping technique, communication information can be extracted by detecting phase hops associated with PSK. This method offers an attractive alternative to traditional methods such as matched filtering and coherent demodulation techniques. We derive the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for ranging. Theoretical analysis and simulation indicate that our method effectively reduces the required sampling rate and provides higher-ranging performance than the matched filtering technique in radar sensing. In high signal-to-noise ratio scenarios, our proposed method delivers a ranging performance close to that of CRLB. Regarding communication, our method has the advantage of lower synchronization requirements, making it more feasible for practical engineering applications than the conventional coherent demodulation method. Furthermore, it also necessitates lower computational resources compared to matched filtering techniques. Importantly, our method allows high device sharing, promoting cost-effective ISAC implementation.