Cramer--Rao Bounds for Magneto-Inductive Integrated Sensing and Communications

Abstract

Magnetic induction (MI) enables communication in RF-denied environments (underground, underwater, in-body), where the medium conductivity imprints a deterministic signature on the channel. This letter derives a closed-form Cram\'{e}r--Rao bound (CRB) for the joint estimation of range and medium conductivity from MI pilot observations in an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) framework. The Fisher information matrix reveals that the joint estimation penalty converges to 3\,dB in the near-field regime, meaning conductivity sensing adds at most a factor-of-two loss in ranging precision. Monte Carlo maximum-likelihood simulations confirm that the CRB is achievable under practical operating conditions.