Co-radar, ISAC, and ISAC at integrated systems level: a review

Communicating radar (Co-radar) and Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) are a transformative paradigm for future wireless networks, enabling communication and sensing functionalities to operate within a unified system framework. At the integrated systems level (ISL), co-radar and ISAC architectures leverage shared spectrum, hardware platforms, signal waveforms, and processing resources to simultaneously transmit data and acquire environmental information. Integrated system designs facilitate real-time coordination between sensing and communication tasks, supporting applications such as autonomous vehicles, autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS), smart cities, industrial automation and intelligent transportation networks. Key research challenges include the joint design of waveforms and protocols, resource allocation, interference mitigation, synchronization, hardware integration, and the development of intelligent algorithms for dynamic adaptation.