Accurate Time Synchronization Exploiting Integrated Sensing and Communication

The design of waveforms catering to both communication and sensing functionalities emerges as a pivotal aspect in Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) systems. The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), currently used for communication purposes, requires accurate time synchronization. This paper presents an experimental exploration of a novel ISAC waveform, which superimposes the legacy OFDM onto a low power and wide bandwidth signal, with the focus to synchronize transmitters and receivers. Our proposed method requires a low complexity yet effective correlation technique with the transmitted low power signal to identify OFDM symbols timing at the communication receiver. The experimental results shows the superiority of our approach compared to the state of the art, showcasing enhanced accuracy, also in harsh channel conditions, compared to the existing synchronization methods. Our approach leverages the processing typically done to sense the environment for the goal of synchronisation, reusing computationally expensive results for multiple purposes.