Integrated Sensing and Communication: Is This a Key Enabler for Resilience by Design in Future Communication Systems?

Team

Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Informationstechnik, TU Munich

Holger Boche Holger Boche received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering, Graduate degree in mathematics, and the Dr.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, in 1990, 1992, and 1994, respectively. In 1998, he received the Dr. rer. nat. degree in pure mathematics from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. From 2002 to 2010, he was Full Professor in mobile communication networks with the Institute for Communications Systems, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. In 2004, he became the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (HHI). He is currently Full Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Information Technology, Technische Universität München, Germany, which he joined in October 2010. Since 2014, Prof. Boche has been a member and Honorary Fellow of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, Munich, Germany, and since 2018, a Founding Director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, Technische Universität München, Germany. Since 2021, he has been leading jointly with Frank Fitzek the BMBF Research Hub 6G-life. He was elected member of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) in 2008 and to the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2009. He is a recipient of the Research Award “Technische Kommunikation” from the Alcatel SEL Foundation in October 2003, the “Innovation Award” from the Vodafone Foundation in June 2006, and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) in 2008. He was a co-recipient of the 2006 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award and a recipient of the 2007 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award. He was General Chair of the Symposium on Information Theoretic Approaches to Security and Privacy at IEEE GlobalSIP 2016.
Yiqi Chen
PostDoc

Lehrstuhl für Informationstheorie und Maschinelles Lernen, TU Dresden

Rafael Schaefer Rafael Schaefer (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2007, and the Dr.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the Technische Universität München, Germany, in 2012. He is a Professor and the Head of the Chair of Information Theory and Machine Learning, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Since 2023, he is also leading the Wireless Connectivity and Sensing Group at the Barkhausen Institut, Dresden, Germany. From 2013 to 2015, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with Princeton University. From 2015 to 2020, he was an Assistant Professor with the Technische Universität Berlin. From 2021 to 2022, he was a Professor with the Universität Siegen. Among his publications is the book Information Theoretic Security and Privacy of Information Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He was a recipient of the VDE Johann-Philipp-Reis Award in 2013. He received the Joy Thomas Tutorial Paper Award in 2025 and Best Paper Awards from the German Information Technology Society (ITG-Preis) in 2016 and IEEE Global Communications Conference in 2023.

Abstract

[EN] This research project aims to develop resilient and secure Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) systems capable of withstanding adversarial jamming attacks. The project pursues three major goals and is structured into four interrelated work packages (WPs) that span theoretical modeling, practical implementation, and optimization for real-world applications. The first goal of this project is to develop information-theoretic foundations for resilience in ISAC systems under adversarial jamming attacks. This involves creating channel and source models for secure ISAC systems that integrate the sensing task, jamming attacks, as well as eavesdropping threats. This will provide key insights how the integration of sensing and communication can fortify system resilience and security, enabling the design of communication systems that are robust to hostile interference. The second goal is to implement selected strategies to achieve resilience derived from the first goal and evaluate their performance in realistic environments. This will involve developing a hardware demonstrator that showcases the proposed approaches, and it will assess their effectiveness and robustness against various jamming tactics under real-world conditions. Building on the outcomes from the first two goals, the third goal is to derive holistic design principles for resilient ISAC systems. This includes analyzing the critical role of sensing functionality in detecting and characterizing jamming attacks, as well as in triggering countermeasures against such attacks. The goal also includes evaluating the potential of AI-based approaches for enhancing these detection and mitigation tasks. Promising solutions identified during this process will be considered for patent applications. The ultimate outcome of this project is a robust and secure ISAC system design, ready for practical deployment, with a focus on resilience, security, and operational efficiency in hostile environments.

[DE] Dieses Forschungsprojekt hat zum Ziel, resiliente und sichere Integrated-Sensing-and-Communication-Systeme (ISAC-Systeme) zu entwickeln, die in der Lage sind, feindlichen Störangriffen standzuhalten. Das Projekt verfolgt drei Hauptziele und ist in vier miteinander verbundene Arbeitspakete unterteilt, die theoretische Modellierung, praktische Implementierung und Optimierung für reale Anwendungen umfassen. Das erste Ziel dieses Projekts ist die Entwicklung informationstheoretischer Grundlagen für die Resilienz in ISAC-Systemen unter feindlichen Störangriffen. Dies umfasst die Erstellung von Kanal- und Quellenmodellen für sichere ISAC-Systeme, die sowohl die Sensingaufgabe, Störangriffe sowie Abhörbedrohungen berücksichtigen. Dadurch sollen wichtige Erkenntnisse gewonnen werden, wie die Integration von Sensorik und Kommunikation die Systemresilienz und Systemsicherheit stärken kann, um die Entwicklung von Kommunikationssystemen zu ermöglichen, die robust gegenüber feindlicher Interferenz sind. Das zweite Ziel besteht darin, ausgewählte Strategien zum Erreichen der Resilienz, die aus dem ersten Ziel abgeleitet wurden, umzusetzen und ihre Leistung in realen Umgebungen zu evaluieren. Dies umfasst die Entwicklung eines Hardware-Demonstrators, der die vorgeschlagenen Lösungsansätze veranschaulicht, sowie die Bewertung ihrer Wirksamkeit und Robustheit gegenüber verschiedenen Störtaktiken unter realen Bedingungen. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen der ersten beiden Ziele besteht das dritte Ziel darin, ganzheitliche Designprinzipien für resiliente ISAC-Systeme abzuleiten. Dies umfasst die Analyse der entscheidenden Rolle der Sensorikfunktionalität bei der Erkennung und Charakterisierung von Störangriffen sowie beim Ergreifen von Gegenmaßnahmen gegen solche Angriffe. Das Ziel umfasst ebenfalls die Bewertung des Potenzials von KI-basierten Ansätzen zur Verbesserung dieser Detektions- und Mitigationsaufgaben. Vielversprechende Lösungen, die während dieses Prozesses identifiziert werden, sollen für Patentanmeldungen in Betracht gezogen werden. Das finale Ergebnis dieses Projekts ist ein robustes, sicheres und für den praktischen Einsatz geeignetes ISAC-Systemdesign, mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Resilienz, Sicherheit und Effizienz in feindlichen Umgebungen.