Map Fusion and Heterogeneous Objects Tracking in Joint Sensing and Communication Networks

We consider a joint sensing and communication (JSC) network where a set of base stations (BSs) cooperates through a fusion center (FC). The network is capable of tracking a set of heterogeneous objects and simultaneously communicating with a set of users. In particular, each BS acts as a monostatic radar that can scan the surrounding area, producing range-angle maps that are exploited to infer the targets positions. Such maps are fused at the FC, and then tracking algorithms, i.e., particle filter (PF) and multi-hypothesis tracker (MHT), are applied to estimate the targets states. Numerical results based on 5G new radio (NR) signals show that BSs are capable of serving user equipments (UEs) with a communication capacity of 850 Mbit/s while their cooperation for the radar task allows to localize point-like and extended targets with a root mean squared error (RMSE) less than 15 cm and 80 cm, respectively.