A Roadmap for NF-ISAC in 6G: A Comprehensive Overview and Tutorial

Abstract

Near-field (NF) integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has the potential to revolutionize future wireless networks. It enables simultaneous communication and sensing operations on the same radio frequency (RF) resources using a shared hardware platform, maximizing resource utilization. NF-ISAC systems can improve communication and sensing performance compared to traditional far-field (FF) ISAC systems by exploiting the unique propagation characteristics of NF spherical waves with an additional distance dimension. Despite its potential, NF-ISAC research is still in its early stages, and a comprehensive survey of the technology is lacking. This paper systematically explores NF-ISAC technology, providing an in-depth analysis of both NF and FF systems, their applicability in various scenarios, and different channel models. It highlights the advantages and philosophies of ISAC, examining both narrow-band and wide-band NF-ISAC systems. Case studies and simulations offer deeper insights into NF-ISAC design philosophies. Additionally, the paper reviews the existing NF-ISAC literature, methodologies, potentials, and conclusions, and discusses future research areas, challenges, and applications.