Bowen Wang

Dual-function radar-communication (DFRC), as an integration of radar and communication functionality, has been envisioned as a promising technology for B5G and 6G. Nowadays, by integrating millimeter wave (mmWave) DFRC and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), the DFRC can achieve high-precision sensing while guaranteeing high-throughput communications. However, implementing mmWave massive MIMO DFRC systems with fully digital beamforming architecture is impractical due to the substantial power consumption and prohibitive hardware cost. As a cost-effective alternative, the DFRC equipped with hybrid beamforming (HBF) architecture is envisioned as a good trade-off between system performance and hardware complexity. In this chapter, two cases of HBF design for mmWave DFRC systems are studied. Specifically, in the first case, we consider a scenario in which a single-carrier DFRC system communicates with a single multi-antenna user while detecting an extended target in the presence of extended clutters. In the second case, a multi-user and multi-carrier DFRC system is investigated, where this system leverages multi-carrier signals to achieve high-accuracy direction of arrival estimation and ensure high-quality communication services. Two state-of-the-art HBF design algorithms are proposed for the two cases under consideration. Numerical results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and superiority of mmWave DFRC with HBF architecture..

This work focuses on the use of reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) systems to improve communication capacity and sensing precision, and enhance coverage for both functions. In contrast to most of the existing RIS aided DFRC works where the RIS is modeled as a diagonal phase shift matrix and can only reflect signals to half space, we propose a novel beyond diagonal RIS (BD-RIS) aided DFRC system. Specifically, the proposed BD-RIS supports the hybrid reflecting and transmitting mode, and is compatible with flexible architectures, enabling the system to realize full-space coverage and to achieve enhanced performance. To achieve the expected benefits, we jointly optimize the transmit waveform, the BD-RIS matrices, and sensing receive filters, by maximizing the minimum signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio for fair target detection, subject to the constraints of the communication quality of service, different BD-RIS architectures and power budget. To solve the non-convex and non-smooth max-min problem, a general solution based on the alternating direction method of multipliers is provided. Numerical simulations validate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm and show the superiority of the BD-RIS aided DFRC system in terms of both communication and sensing compared to conventional RIS aided DFRC.

This paper investigates dynamic hybrid beamforming (HBF) for a dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) system, where the DFRC base station (BS) simultaneously serves multiple single-antenna users and senses a target in the presence of multiple clutters. Particularly, we apply a HBF architecture with dynamic subarrays and double phase shifters in the DFRC BS. Aiming at maximizing the radar mutual information, we consider jointly designing the dynamic HBF of the DFRC system, subject to the constraints of communication quality of service (QoS), transmit power, and analog beamformer. To solve the complicated non-convex optimization, an efficient alternating optimization algorithm based on the majorization-minimization methods is developed. Simulation results verify the advancement of the considered HBF architecture and the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

In this letter, we study the Hybrid Beamforming (HBF) design for a Dual-Function Radar-Communication (DFRC) system, which serves Multiple Users (MUs) and detects a target in the presence of signal-dependent clutters, simultaneously. Unlike conventional beamforming strategies, we propose a novel one on the symbol level, which exploits Constructive Interference (CI) to achieve a trade-off between radar and communication using one platform. To implement this novel strategy, we jointly design the DFRC transmit HBF and radar receive beamforming by maximizing the radar Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) while ensuring the Quality of Service (QoS) of downlink communication. To tackle the formulated non-convex problem, we propose an iterative algorithm, which combines the Majorization-Minimization (MM) and Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) judiciously. The numerical experiments indicate that our algorithm yields the CI properly for robust communications and achieves better performance than the conventional HBF benchmarks in both communication bit error rate and radar SINR.

As a promising technology in beyond-5G (B5G) and 6G, dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) aims to ensure both radar sensing and communication on a single integrated platform with unified signaling schemes. To achieve accurate sensing and reliable communication, large-scale arrays are anticipated to be implemented in such systems, which brings out the prominent issues on hardware cost and power consumption. To address these issues, hybrid beamforming (HBF), beyond its successful deployment in communication-only systems, could be a promising approach in the emerging DFRC ones. In this article, we investigate the development of the HBF techniques on the DFRC system in a self-contained manner. Specifically, we first introduce the basics of the HBF based DFRC system, where the system model and different receive modes are discussed with focus. Then we illustrate the corresponding design principles, which span from the performance metrics and optimization formulations to the design approaches and our preliminary results. Finally, potential extension and key research opportunities, such as the combination with the reconfigurable intelligent surface, are discussed concisely.