Real-time integrated 2.04 cm range resolution and 16.14-Gbps bidirectional wireless communication in photonic-assisted millimeter wave band system over 100 m
Wang Q H, Zhou W, Zhang J, et al
Sci China Inf Sci, 2026, 69(3): 134301
Millimeter wave integration of sensing and communication (MMW-ISAC) is a promising technology. By extending the spectrum, the ISAC system can achieve potentially higher communication rates and sensing accuracy. To overcome the bandwidth limitations of radio frequency electronic devices, researchers have proposed photonic-assisted up-conversion schemes to generate MMW waves to achieve ultra-wideband sensing and communication. Photonic-assisted MMW-ISAC systems offer significant advantages such as expanded bandwidth, license-free operation, and enhanced security. According to the latest research, thanks to the ultra-large bandwidth, the photonic-assisted MMW-ISAC system can simultaneously achieve centimeter-level resolution and a data rate up to tens of Gbit/s. However, these results have short wireless transmission distances (<20 m), and the digital signal processing (DSP) is implemented offline (OL). In addition, they are currently still in the primary stage, and the transmission modes are mainly unidirectional. In autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, UAV cooperation (both cross-domain and air-to-ground), as well as satellite and industrial park monitoring tasks, the simultaneous availability of communication and sensing capabilities at long ranges is indispensable for timeliness, safety, and practicality. For example, in autonomous driving on highways, an ISAC system must provide coverage of at least several hundred meters to leave sufficient time for risk detection, reaction, and execution of avoidance maneuvers. Importantly, all these scenarios involve multi-node systems (e.g., vehicle fleets, UAV swarms, satellite constellations), where one-way sensing alone is insufficient for collaborative positioning or joint perception. In contrast, bidirectional (BiDi) ISAC enables distributed sensing and communication, allowing multiple nodes to exchange measurements. For instance, in UAV formation flying and cross-domain cooperation, bi-directional ranging supports centimeter- to decimeter-level relative positioning while maintaining a low-latency communication link, thereby ensuring formation stability and coordinated task execution. Therefore, BiDi ISAC over long ranges is not merely a technical enhancement, but a prerequisite for the reliable deployment of next-generation intelligent transportation and autonomous systems. In this work, we demonstrate a BiDi photonicassisted MMW real-time ISAC experimental system. The system uses the waveform of discrete multi-tone (DMT) and implements real-time DSP based on the FPGA hardware platform. The system can achieve a data rate of 16.14 Gbps and a range resolution of 2.04 cm over 100 m wireless distance. Figure 1(a) shows the experimental setup of our proposed real-time BiDi photonicassisted MMW-ISAC system. For the base station (BS) and user equipment (UE), the real-time transceiver is implemented at one FPGA platform: Xilinx AUV901 FPGA, equipped with a 6-bit 29.4912 GSa/s DAC and ADC. Sensing is achieved through the two-way time-of-flight (TW-ToF) principle, which uses the flight time of the ISAC signal between the two asynchronous transceivers of the BS and UE to estimate the range.