Joint Detection and Localization in DFRC Systems with Communication-Assisted Sensing

In this paper, the problem of joint target detection and localization in Dual-Function Radar-Communication (DFRC) systems is studied. A communication-assisted sensing mechanism is designed to fully utilize spectrum resources and enhance the joint detection and localization capabilities of DFRC systems. At the core, we construct two objective functions for joint detection and localization, applicable to scenarios where the communication signal is either known or unknown. In particular, for the scenario where the communication signal is unknown, the constructed objective function becomes a high-dimensional non-convex optimization problem, making direct solution computationally expensive. To address this, we further develop an efficient Expectation-Maximization-based General-ized Likelihood Ratio Test (EM-GLRT) detector to solve the problem. Numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, demonstrating that it can efficiently achieve communication-assisted joint detection and localization tasks in DFRC systems.