Radio Imaging and Resource Allocation in Frugal Multistatic D-MIMO ISAC Systems

Abstract

Emerging integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems based on distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) enable radio imaging by exploiting spatial diversity across multiple access points (APs). However, joint sensing and communication introduce mutual interference between communication and sensing signals. In this paper, we propose a downlink D-MIMO ISAC framework that allocates orthogonal subcarriers to sensing and communication to eliminate inter-function interference. We consider a phase-coherent architecture in which single-antenna APs serve communication user equipment (UEs) while constructing a reflectivity image of the environment. We develop a two-timescale resource allocation framework that minimizes reconstructed-image entropy subject to a communication spectral-efficiency (SE) constraint. The proposed design follows a communication-centric policy, where imaging uses the resources left after satisfying the communication requirement. The long-timescale optimization (LTO) determines AP modes and subcarrier assignment, including the partitioning between communication and sensing and the allocation of sensing subcarriers among transmit APs, using synthetic scenarios with random UE and target distributions. The short-timescale optimization (STO) adapts the communication-sensing power-splitting factor to preserve the SE constraint in the current scenario. Numerical results show that the proposed orthogonal subcarrier allocation achieves a superior sensing-communication trade-off compared with conventional superposition, where sensing and communication share the same subcarriers. Finally, we evaluate coherent and non-coherent imaging receivers and identify the synchronization regimes in which each approach provides better imaging and localization performance.