Modeling and Analysis of Near-Field ISAC

As technologies envisioned for next-generation wireless networks significantly extend the near-field region, it is of interest to reevaluate integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) with an appropriate channel model to account for the effects introduced by the near field. In this article, a near-field ISAC framework is proposed for both downlink and uplink scenarios based on such a channel model. We consider a base station equipped with a uniform planar array, and the impacts of the effective aperture and polarization of antennas are considered. For the downlink case, three distinct designs are studied: a communications-centric (C-C) design, a sensing-centric (S-C) design, and a Pareto optimal design. Regarding the uplink case, the C-C design, the S-C design and a time-sharing strategy are considered. Within each design, sensing rates (SRs) and communication rates (CRs) are derived. To gain further insights, high signal-to-noise ratio slopes and rate scaling laws concerning the number of antennas are examined. The attainable near-field SR-CR regions of ISAC and the baseline frequency-division S&C are also characterized. Numerical results reveal that, as the number of antennas in the array grows, the SRs and CRs under our model converge to finite values, while those under conventional far- and near-field models exhibit unbounded growth, highlighting the importance of precise channel modeling for near-field ISAC.