Active RIS-Aided ISAC Systems: Beamforming Design and Performance Analysis

• Published in: IEEE transactions on communications Vol. 72; no. 3; pp. 1578 - 1595
• Main Authors: Yu, Zhiyuan, Ren, Hong, Pan, Cunhua, Zhou, Gui, Wang, Boshi, Dong, Mianxiong, Wang, Jiangzhou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: active RIS; Algorithms; Array signal processing; Beamforming; Communication; dual-function radar-communication (DFRC); integrated sensing and communication (ISAC); intelligent reflecting surface (IRS); Interference; Optimization; Quality of service; Radar; Radar antennas; Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS); Sensors; Signal to noise ratio
• ISSN: 0090-6778; 1558-0857
• DOI: 10.1109/TCOMM.2023.3332856

This paper considers an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system. We aim to maximize radar signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) by jointly optimizing the beamforming matrix at a dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) base station (BS) and the reflecting coefficients at an active RIS subject to the quality of service (QoS) constraints of communication user equipments (UEs) and the transmit power constraints of active RIS and DFRC BS. To tackle the optimization problem, the majorization-minimization (MM) algorithm is applied to address the nonconvex radar SINR objective function, and the resulting quartic problem is solved by developing an semidefinite relaxation (SDR)-based approach. Moreover, we derive the scaling order of the radar SINR with a large number of reflecting elements. Next, the transmit power allocation problem and the deployment strategy of the active RIS are studied with a moderate number of reflecting elements. Finally, we validate the potential of the active RIS in ISAC systems compared to passive RIS. Additionally, we deliberate on several open problems that remain for future research.