Evaluation Methodology for 6G Sensing-Assisted Communication System Performance

Nowadays, Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is receiving significant attention in the frame of the Sixth Generation (6G). To assess the performance of future candidate ISAC technologies and to be able to compare them with each other, the standardization of evaluation methodologies is necessary. This paper introduces a suitable methodology for evaluating sensing-assisted communication systems. For this purpose, features similar to those included in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) recommendation have been adopted, mainly geometry-based stochastic channel modeling and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) selection. The key elements of this evaluation methodology are the existence of a correlation between the sensing and the communication channels and the need for a spatial consistency model to obtain spatially correlated stochastic channels using the geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM). Considering these elements allows a wide range of usage scenarios to be evaluated within the ISAC framework. Finally, to clarify the evaluation procedure, a sensing-assisted channel estimation use case has been presented as an example of the applicability of the proposed methodology. Promising results are presented, where the ISAC solution can outperform a conventional communication system in terms of Throughput.