Frame-Based AFDM-ISAC Waveform Design With Chirp-Enabled Pulse Compression

This paper proposes an Affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM)-empowered integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) design, referred to as AFDM-ISAC. We first design a novel AFDM-ISAC frame structure that consists of both ISAC and pure data symbols. Each ISAC symbol consists of a single chirp subcarrier for both sensing and channel estimation, while the remaining subcarriers are allocated for communication. Building upon this structure, we present an analog-domain sensing receiver that down-mixes the received echo with a local chirp to fully exploit chirp compression gains avoiding the need for full-duplex hardware. In addition, a sensing fusion algorithm, guided by AFDM modulation parameters, is further proposed in the digital domain. Leveraging the distinct features of the proposed AFDM-ISAC frame, we present a low-complexity channel estimation scheme for high mobility channels based on a generalized complex exponential basis expansion model (GCE-BEM), along with an optimal power allocation strategy between pilot and data symbols. Moreover, to support frame-based AFDM communications, a GCE-BEM-based Kalman filter is also employed for robust intra-frame channel estimation. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed schemes in terms of system flexibility, hardware complexity, and ISAC performance.