Full 2D optimized window coefficients for improved range velocity estimation in 5G joint communication and sensing

Abstract This work presents an approach for optimization of window coefficients for 5G user equipment side sensing, using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing radar-based range and velocity estimation, based on the sounding reference signal (SRS) from the 5G New Radio (NR) standard. The signal configuration and the corresponding waveform are generated in compliance with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard for 5G. The limitations of conventional signal processing for resources available for sensing with the SRS are highlighted. The proposed approach, which optimizes the window coefficients to improve the sensing capabilities, is implemented through two methods. The first method employs a decoupled optimization strategy for range and velocity, showing high computational efficiency. Our results demonstrate that this method significantly improves the peak sidelobe level (PSL) of the velocity profile by over $\mathrm{15}\,\mathrm{dB}$ , although it does not address the issue of diagonally located sidelobes, which occur due to non-uniform resource distribution. The second method adopts a comprehensive full 2D optimization technique. While it requires more computational resources and does not improve the PSL beyond the first method’s achievements, it mitigates the diagonally located sidelobes issue. The level of these have been improved by more than $\mathrm{3}\,\mathrm{dB}$ .