Sensing with mmWave 5G: Extracting spatial information leveraging directional beams

Synergy from sensing and communication networks is a topic of increasing interest. On one hand, sensing can, for example, aid in predicting signals being blocked by objects, and inform the network that can adjust accordingly to mitigate outages. On the other hand, directional communication signals contain spatial information that can be extracted and used for sensing without the need of installing dedicated sensing infrastructure that can be costly. In this work, we present a 5G testbed with programmable beam steering that enables various sensing applications with minimal overhead. We describe in detail a method for estimating the Angle of Arrival (AoA) of a signal within a single OFDM symbol duration. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate AoA estimation using signals that are already present in a 5G mmWave communication environment. We also show object recognition using AI, an application of interest that avoids privacy concerns associated with the use of visible-domain cameras.