AISAC: Closing the Loop Between AI and Integrated Sensing and Communication for 6G
For 6G network designers, this paper proposes a new design principle that could reshape how sensing and communication systems are optimized for AI tasks, though it remains conceptual without concrete results.
This paper introduces AISAC, a closed-loop framework merging AI, integrated sensing, and communication for 6G, arguing that physical-layer configurations should prioritize learning alignment over traditional sensing accuracy or communication rate. It presents the architecture, a three-way tension, and a vehicular edge-intelligence use case with open problems.
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) and AI-and-communication (AIAC) are identified as separate usage scenarios in the ITU IMT-2030 vision for sixth-generation (6G) networks. In practice, however, these two directions are already beginning to merge. ISAC gives the network a way to observe the physical world, while AI gives the network a way to learn from those observations and act on them. This article introduces AI-integrated sensing and communication (AISAC) as a closed-loop framework for this merger. In AISAC, AI is not only a tool used to optimize an ISAC system. ISAC is also the physical substrate through which AI receives data, context, and connectivity. The key technical message is that AISAC requires a new physical-layer design principle, in which the ISAC waveform, beam, power, bandwidth, and sensing mode should be configured for learning alignment, not for sensing distortion or communication rate alone. In particular, the sensing configuration that is most accurate from a classical estimation viewpoint need not be the one that is most useful for training or inference. We present the AISAC landscape, explain why imperfect sensing changes the learning problem, develop the closed-loop architecture and its three-way sensing-communication-learning tension, and outline a vehicular edge-intelligence use case together with open problems for theory, implementation, and standardization.