Integrating monostatic sensing with communication for IoT

Abstract

The intention of leveraging Radio-Frequency (RF) resources for diverse sensing purposes has grown increasingly keen, thanks to the ever-expanding deployment of IoT devices using RF communications to maintain connectivity. To this end, we propose ISACoT as the framework for enabling Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) over IoT devices. ISACoT extends over existing devices via four aspects, namely time, frequency, space, and protocol. We argue that, as the multistatic communication infrastructure of IoT is adverse to device-free sensing (e.g., lack of precise time synchronization), the keystone of ISACoT should be to operate sensing in a monostatic mode (like radar). We tackle the fundamental time aspect based on Wi-Fi first, then explore the other three aspects with both preliminary proposals made and potential challenges raised for future extensions.