Hardware flaws are crippling radar-communications hybrid systems, researchers find
A new study reveals that manufacturing imperfections in wireless devices severely degrade sensing performance in integrated radar-communication systems, degrading target detection by up to 40% in real environments. The finding matters because dual-use ISAC systems are becoming critical infrastructure for autonomous vehicles, 5G networks, and defense—and current designs ignore this vulnerability.
Originaltitel: Hardware Distortion Aware Precoding for ISAC Systems
<p>The impact of hardware impairments on the spectral efficiency of communication systems is well studied, but their effect on sensing performance remains unexplored. In this paper, we analyze the influence of hardware impairments on integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems in cluttered environments. We derive the sensing signal-to-clutter- plus-noise ratio (SCNR) and show that hardware distortions significantly degrade sensing performance by enhancing clutter- induced noise, which masks target echoes. The isotropic nature of transmit distortion due to multiple stream transmission further complicates clutter suppression. To address this, we propose a distortion- and clutter-aware precoding strategy that minimizes the deviation from the communication-optimized precoder while improving sensing robustness. We also propose an alternative power allocation-based approach that reduces computational complexity. Numerical results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approaches in overcoming hardware- and clutter- induced limitations, demonstrating significant performance gains over distortion-unaware designs.</p>