Rate-distortion trade-off analysis of the power-domain ISAC waveform for the unmanned aerial vehicle

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems greatly promote the development of radio communication and sensing in the sixth-generation era. Meanwhile, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) provides larger coverage and efficiency for multiple user communication and sensing due to the high mobility. Thus, the merging of these two techniques is promising for future wireless communication. However, the main problem is how to design a proper transmitting waveform that is suitable for high-mobility UAV communication while offering good sensing ability. In this paper, we propose the combination of the orthogonal time-frequency-space modulation (OTFS) and the frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) using the power-domain superposition to achieve the high-mobility communication and sensing function. The OTFS modulation is used to resolve the Doppler shift of the communication and FMCW waveform guarantees the sensing ability. We also discuss the ratio-distortion trade-off between sensing and communication function. The numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed waveform.