Wireless innovations Next-generation
Online Workshop (WiNOW)
3-6 November, 2025 // Virtual
Fan Liu
Southeast University
Fan Liu is currently a Professor with the National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor with the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, from 2020 to 2024. He received the Ph.D. and the BEng. degrees from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China, in 2018 and 2013, respectively. He has previously held academic positions in the University College London (UCL), London, UK, as a Visiting Researcher from 2016 to 2018, and a Marie Curie Research Fellow from 2018 to 2020. Prof. Liu’s research interests lie in the general area of signal processing and wireless communications, and in particular in the area of Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC). He is the founding Academic Chair of the IEEE ComSoc ISAC Emerging Technology Initiative (ISAC-ETI), Vice Chair and founding member of the IEEE SPS ISAC Technical Working Group (ISAC-TWG), an elected member of the IEEE SPS Sensor Array and Multichannel Technical Committee (SAM-TC), an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing, and a Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Wireless Communications, and IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine. He was a TPC Co-Chair of the 2nd-4th IEEE Joint Communication and Sensing (JC&S) Symposium, a Symposium Co-Chair for the IEEE ICC 2026 and IEEE GLOBECOM 2023, and a Track Co-Chair for the IEEE WCNC 2024. He is a member of the IMT-2030 (6G) ISAC Task Group. He was listed among the 2025 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers. He was a recipient of numerous Best Paper Awards, including the 2025 IEEE Communications Society & Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award, 2024 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, 2024 IEEE Signal Processing Society Donald G. Fink Overview Paper Award, 2024 IEEE Communications Society Asia-Pacific Outstanding Paper Award, 2023 IEEE Communications Society Stephan O. Rice Prize, and 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award.
Talk Title: Sensing With Random Communication Signals
To maximize the efficiency of wireless resource utilization, 6G integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems must exploit the inherently random communication data payloads to serve both sensing and communication functions. This lecture provides a comprehensive technical overview of signal processing methodologies for communication-centric ISAC. We begin by revisiting the deterministic-random tradeoff (DRT), highlighting the necessity for specialized processing techniques tailored to random ISAC signals. Building upon this foundation, we review the core signal models and processing pipelines underpinning communication-centric ISAC systems. A particular focus is given to analyzing the average squared auto-correlation function (ACF) of random ISAC signals, a key performance metric for multi-target ranging tasks. Drawing insights from these theoretical results, we outline the design principles for three critical components: modulation schemes, constellation design, and pulse shaping filters. The overarching goal is to enhance sensing capability without compromising communication efficiency, or to enable a scalable tradeoff between the two. The lecture concludes by highlighting open challenges and future research directions for advancing sensing with communication signals in 6G-era networks.