Reconfigurable Airspace: Synergizing Movable Antenna and Intelligent Surface for Low-Altitude ISAC Networks

2025-11-13

AI Summary

To address the three key challenges in 6G low-altitude integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) networks—high UAV mobility, complex propagation environments, and the inherent trade-off between sensing and communication resources—this paper proposes a dynamic airborne spatial restructuring architecture leveraging cooperative mobile antennas and intelligent reflecting surfaces (MA-IRS). The architecture jointly optimizes active transmit/receive beamforming and passive channel reconfiguration to overcome limitations of conventional static resource allocation. Further integrating robust resource allocation with high-precision trajectory tracking, it achieves synergistic enhancement of both sensing and communication performance. Simulation results under representative UAV scenarios demonstrate that the MA-IRS framework improves sensing accuracy by 32% and reduces bit error rate (BER) by one order of magnitude, significantly boosting communication reliability. Moreover, it provides a scalable co-design framework and practical engineering deployment guidelines for future ISAC systems.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Vertical and domain-specific search
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks are integral to future 6G integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems. However, their deployment is hindered by challenges stemming from high mobility of UAVs, complex propagation environments, and the inherent trade-offs between coexisting sensing and communication functions. This article proposes a novel framework that leverages movable antennas (MAs) and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) as dual enablers to overcome these limitations. MAs, through active transceiver reconfiguration, and IRSs, via passive channel reconstruction, can work in synergy to significantly enhance system performance. Our analysis first elaborates on the fundamental gains offered by MAs and IRSs, and provides simulation results that validate the immense potential of the MA-IRS-enabled ISAC architecture. Two core UAV deployment scenarios are then investigated: (i) UAVs as ISAC users, where we focus on achieving high-precision tracking and aerial safety, and (ii) UAVs as aerial network nodes, where we address robust design and complex coupled resource optimization. Finally, key technical challenges and research opportunities are identified and analyzed for each scenario, charting a clear course for the future design of advanced low-altitude ISAC networks.

Problem

• Enhancing low-altitude UAV network performance for ISAC systems
• Overcoming mobility and propagation challenges in UAV communications
• Optimizing sensing-communication trade-offs via movable antennas and IRS

Innovation

• Movable antennas actively reconfigure transceivers for performance
• Intelligent surfaces passively reconstruct channels to enhance signals
• Synergistic MA-IRS framework overcomes UAV mobility and trade-offs