Joint Communication and Sensing for Urban Air Mobility: Waveform Analysis and SDR-based Demonstrator

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) needs innovative communication and sensing capabilities that must be effective and affordable in dense urban environments. As a possible solution, this paper describes opportunities of utilizing the Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS) concept within UAM environment. We focus on the analysis of architectural solutions capable of fulfilling the communication and surveillance requirements in UAM. The analysis considers all the key elements constituting the architecture, the possible network topology, the required node capabilities, the communication and radar waveform characteristics, and the radiating systems. It proposes a distributed network where each node provides both communication and detection capabilities through a single waveform. The waveform parameters are optimized to fulfil regulatory Minimal Operation Performance Standard (MOPS) in communication and surveillance while minimizing spectrum congestion. Two waveform candidates, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS), are analyzed and compared. Through simulations and software defined radio (SDR) experiments, their performance is assessed in simplified scenarios to understand theoretical limits and technological gaps. The results provide an experimental demonstration of JCAS and a direct OFDM- vs-OTFS comparison under identical conditions. This evaluation paves the way for further development in more representative UAM scenarios.