With ISAC, Qualcomm says operators can improve spectral and energy efficiency while opening the door to new cellular services
Integrated sensing and communications, or ISAC, is shaping up as one of the clearest examples of how 6G could expand the role of mobile networks. The idea is to use the same infrastructure to make the network better at transporting data, and make the network more aware of the physical environment around it. That awareness is then used o improve system performance and to support entirely new service models. Qualcomm’s framing is that ISAC can help operators get more out of existing infrastructure while also turning the cellular network into a platform for environmental perception, digital twins and sensing-based services.
That dual value proposition came through in comments from Tao Luo, VP of Engineering at Qualcomm. “So a traditional network can do data communication…Because you already have a base station, the question is can you do a non-data service.” In Luo’s explanation, sensing is an important way to extend a cellular system beyond connectivity into environmental perception that can be used for other purposes with drone detection an emerging example.
He also tied that directly to operator economics. “I think first, with sensing, you can utilize the same hardware, same infrastructure, same waveform.” The significance there is that a widely deployed cellular system can also function as a sensor, which creates a path both to better network optimization and to service expansion.
From the operator perspective, one of the first benefits is improved system efficiency. Luo explained that ISAC can improve spectrum efficiency and reduce interference. This has straight lines to deployment efficiency through hardware reuse and energy efficiency through shared power and processing resources. Luo said, “Once you know the channel, this information can be utilized for the network to save energy.”
ISAC can also serve as a valuable input for combined digital twins of a radio environment in a physical space. During Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm used a radio digital twin generated by a scalable pipeline using 3D map and lightweight RF sensing to model traffic patterns, coverage conditions and other variables before changes were made in a simulated network. Comparing 5G with 6G, the company demonstrated device energy savings of more than 50%; using dynamic capacity cells that turn on and off based on predicted traffic, the modeled 6G system delivered network energy savings of 20.1% during the day and 44.1% at night with no median latency increase at all. And for out-to-in coverage enhancements, the radio digital twin scenario shows network energy savings of 23.0% in daytime conditions and 16.7% at night, alongside device energy savings that reach 31.0% at the 90th percentile during the day. This quantitative comparison highlights that radio digital twins give operators a way to run the network more efficiently than a conventional 5G system.
Qualcomm is further approaching ISAC as part of its broader 6G vision wherein sensing becomes a network service. 3GPP Release 19 began the study of wireless sensing as a network service, with requirements around charging, configuration, authorization, exposure to trusted third parties and secure reporting of sensing results. As standards progress and 6G commercialization ramps in 2029, ISAC is viewed as a path to new revenue streams beyond communications.
Taken together, ISAC and digital twins will make future 6G networks more efficient, more adaptive and more commercially valuable. Building on the massive expansion in connectivity in the 5G era, Qualcomm sees 6G as a potentially massive expansion in what can be perceived, optimized and ultimately monetized as a service.
