According to the organisation, the aim of the group is to establish the technical foundations for ISAC development and standardisation in 6G. The “kick off meeting” – which took place in Sophia Antipolis in November – attracted 87 participants from industry and academia.
Founding members of the group elected Dr Alain Mourad from InterDigital as chair. Vice chairs are Apple’s Dr Ayman Naguib, Dr Richard Stirling-Gallacher from Huawei, and professor Henk Wymeersch of Chalmers University.
Discussing the group, an ETSI spokesperson said: “The [group’s] mission is to enable ETSI members to coordinate their 6G pre-standard research efforts on ISAC. This is particularly across European/national-funded collaborative projects - extended through relevant global initiatives -, paving the way for the 6G standardisation of the technology.
“The ISG targets systematic outputs on ISAC into international standards organisations, namely future 3GPP 6G releases and ITU-R IMT-2030 deliverables”.
Defining ISAC, the spokesperson continued: “Within this context, sensing refers to the use of radio signals to detect and estimate characteristics of target objects in the environment.
“By integrating sensing into the communications network, the network acts as a ‘radar’ sensor, using its own radio signals to sense and comprehend the physical world in which it operates. This allows the network to collect data on the range, velocity, position, orientation, size, shape, image, and materials of objects and devices.”
Mourad said: “Integrated sensing and communications add a new element of capability to the wireless network. It enables new and innovative use cases in transport, urban environments, homes, and factories. This ranges from object and intruder detection in predefined secure areas around critical infrastructures, to fall detection and rain/pollution monitoring.”
