Geometry-Aware Resource Allocation for Network-Level ISAC Systems

Abstract

Network-level integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is recognized as a transformative technology for next-generation mobile radio systems. By enabling collaboration among multiple transceivers, network-level ISAC can significantly enhance both communication and sensing performance through spatial diversity. However, existing resource allocation strategies typically overlook the impact of spatial geometry, where identical time-frequency resources contribute differently to sensing accuracy depending on the transceiver's location. This leaves the fundamental coupling between spatial topology and resource efficacy unclear, rendering optimal resource allocation a critical challenge for unlocking the full potential of network-level ISAC.To address this challenge, this paper investigates the optimal distribution of time-frequency resources across spatially distributed transceivers through a theoretically grounded two-stage framework. First, we analytically derive the optimal time and frequency aperture distributions for sensing, defined as the variances of the allocated symbol and subcarrier indices, respectively, under both two-transmitter and multi-transmitter scenarios. By exploiting the mathematical isomorphism between delay and Doppler estimation, we prove that the optimal resource allocation strategy follows the gradient direction of the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) with respect to the apertures. Second, to bridge the gap between theoretical aperture values and practical OFDMA constraints, such as the minimized communication rate of each user equipment (UE), we formulate the resource allocation as a combinatorial integer partitioning problem. To tackle the NP-hard nature of the formulated problem, a low-complexity Variance-Guided Partitioning Algorithm (VGPA) is proposed to jointly optimize the subcarrier and symbol patterns for communication and sensing.