Empirical Analysis of Sensing Channel Characteristics and Environment Effects at 28 GHz

Abstract

Joint communication and sensing (JCAS), in which the sensing and communication share the same frequency band, resources and hardware, is envisioned as a promising technology beyond 5G and 6G communication. For the JCAS system design and performance evaluation, accurate and efficient channel models are crucial. Since the sense is realized through information interaction in the environment, JCAS channel modeling needs to consider the effect of the environment based on traditional methods. However, most of the existing studies on the JCAS channel regard the environment as a clean background and ignore the effect of the environment on the channel. To research this issue, we analyze the channel characteristics based on the collected data by conducting two sets of measurements at 28 GHz in an outdoor scenario. We define the power ratio (PR) to quantity the variation of the environment around the sensed target. Further, we introduce a metal board to study the effect of the interference environment on the sensing channel. Results show that whether the target can be sensed depends on the ratio of the target power in the sum of environment multipath powers. Based on this discovery, we give the conditions that the target can be sensed. Finally, we propose an evaluation method of sensing recognition based on the variation of the sensed target power.