Research on Directional Modulation Multi-carrier Waveform Design for Integrated Sensing and Communication

ObjectiveWith the concurrent evolution of wireless communication and radar technologies, spectrum congestion has become increasingly severe. Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) has emerged as an effective approach that unifies sensing and communication functionalities to achieve efficient spectrum and hardware sharing. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals are regarded as a key candidate waveform due to their high flexibility. However, estimating target azimuth angles and suppressing interference from non-target directions remain computationally demanding, and confidential information transmitted in these directions is vulnerable to eavesdropping. To address these challenges, the combination of Directional Modulation (DM) and OFDM, termed OFDM-DM, provides a promising solution. This approach enables secure communication toward the desired direction, suppresses interference in other directions, and reduces radar signal processing complexity. The potential of OFDM-DM for interference suppression and secure waveform design is investigated in this study.MethodsAs a physical-layer security technique, DM is used to preserve signal integrity in the intended direction while deliberately distorting signals in other directions. Based on this principle, an OFDM-DM ISAC waveform is developed to enable secure communication toward the target direction while simultaneously estimating distance, velocity, and azimuth angle. The proposed waveform has two main advantages: the Bit Error Rate (BER) at the radar receiver is employed for simple and adjustable azimuth estimation, and interference from non-target directions is suppressed without additional computational cost. The waveform maintains the OFDM constellation in the target direction while distorting constellation points elsewhere, which reduces correlation with the original signal and enhances target detection through time-domain correlation. Moreover, because element-wise complex division in the Two-Dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (2-D FFT) depends on signal integrity, phase distortion in signals from non-target directions disrupts phase relationships and further diminishes the positional information of interference sources.Results and DiscussionsIn the OFDM-DM ISAC system, the transmitted signal retains its communication structure within the target beam, whereas constellation distortion occurs in other directions. Therefore, the BER at the radar receiver exhibits a pronounced main lobe in the target direction, enabling accurate azimuth estimation (Fig. 5). In the time-domain correlation algorithm, the target distance is precisely determined, while correlation in non-target directions deteriorates markedly due to DM, thereby achieving effective interference suppression (Fig. 6). Additionally, during 2-D FFT processing, signal distortion disrupts the linear phase relationship among modulation symbols in non-target directions, causing conventional two-dimensional spectral estimation to fail and further suppressing positional information of interference sources (Fig. 7). Additional simulations yield one-dimensional range and velocity profiles (Fig. 8). The results demonstrate that the OFDM-DM ISAC waveform provides structural flexibility, physical-layer security, and low computational complexity, making it particularly suitable for environments requiring high security or operating under strong interference conditions.ConclusionsThis study proposes an OFDM-DM ISAC waveform and systematically analyzes its advantages in both sensing and communication. The proposed waveform inherently suppresses interference from non-target directions, eliminating target ambiguity commonly encountered in traditional ISAC systems and thereby enhancing sensing accuracy. Owing to the spatial selectivity of DM, only legitimate directions can correctly demodulate information, whereas unintended directions fail to recover valid data, achieving intrinsic physical-layer security. Compared with existing methods, the proposed waveform simultaneously attains secure communication and interference suppression without additional computational burden, offering a lightweight and high-performance solution suitable for resource-constrained platforms. Therefore, the OFDM-DM ISAC waveform enables high-precision sensing while maintaining communication security and hardware feasibility, providing new insights for multi-carrier ISAC waveform design.