COSMIC Waveforms for Integrated Communication and Imaging

This paper introduces COSMIC (ConnectivityOriented Sensing Method for Imaging and Communication), a new waveform design method. COSMIC waveforms are created to transmit communication symbols while maintaining an extended orthogonality condition, which allows for radio imaging of the environment. A MIMO Radar-Communication (RadCom) device transmits COSMIC waveforms from each antenna simultaneously and in the same frequency band, achieving orthogonality not through space, time, or frequency multiplexing, but through algebraic precoding. The RadCom device processes echoes coming from an extended scattering scenario to create an electromagnetic image of the environment, while also transmitting data to other network entities. This paper outlines the algebraic methods for generating COSMIC waveforms and discusses optimizing imaging and communication efficiency. Simulations show COSMIC waveforms enable precise environmental imaging with good communication performance.