Integrated Localization and Communication for IRS-Assisted Multi-User mmWave MIMO Systems

This paper delves into the potential of intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) in enabling integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in multi-user multi-path scenarios. We introduce a three-dimensional (3D) multi-user ISAC framework with distributed IRSs, which offers simultaneous signal demodulation, channel estimation, and localization. The transmission is divided into a user access stage and a downlink transmission stage. In the first stage, we propose an algorithm for simultaneous uplink signal demodulation and angles of arrival (AoA) estimation at the semi-passive IRS. Moreover, a joint active and passive beamforming scheme inspired by radar-communication, is proposed to enhance both communication and localization performance in the downlink stage, while eliminating the need for distinct localization reference signals. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed ISAC framework achieves centimeter-level localization accuracy while maintaining comparable communication performance to communication-only systems, thus validating its effectiveness.