Inner-Frame Time Division Multiplexing Waveform Design of Integrated Sensing and Communication in 5G NR System

The design of an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) waveform compatible with the 5G new radio (NR) system is crucial in enabling ISAC by utilizing the hardware of existing base stations (BSs). In this paper, we design an inner-frame time division multiplexed sensing waveform in the frame structure of 5G NR to achieve ISAC. The designed waveform is computed by the simulated annealing algorithm on an optimization cost function of a constrained combination of the peak-to-sidelobe ratio (PSLR) and the integrated sidelobe ratio (ISLR) of the velocity ambiguity function. Specifically, the constraints are the 5G communication protocol and 5G NR frame structure. In addition, we conducted corresponding signal detection and estimation methods to illustrate the performance of the sensing waveform. Both theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the designed waveform can effectively achieve target detection and parameter estimation under low sensing cost conditions.