NextSense: A Semi-Synthetic Sensing Data generation Platform
For researchers and developers of ISAC applications, NextSense provides a cost-effective and flexible alternative to real-world data collection, though validation is limited to specific use cases.
NextSense is a semi-synthetic data generation platform for ISAC applications that produces multi-perspective outputs (IQ samples, protocol traces, KPIs) with full customization. Validation shows it acts as a faithful proxy for real measurements in sensing use cases.
Emerging integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) applications require large volumes of data, but collecting such datasets in real networks is costly, time consuming, and often infeasible due to limited access to low level measurements. In this paper we present NextSense, an open and modular semi-synthetic data generation platform that consists of a 5G stack, a channel emulator, and an UE emulator. The platform allows users full customization on radio configuration, channel and mobility, and traffic profiles through an API and GUI, and produces multi-perspective outputs that combine symbol-level IQ samples, protocol traces, and key performance indicators across UE, RAN, and CN. This paper describes the NextSense's architecture, and validates its ability to act as a faithful proxy for real measurements in sensing use cases.