In this paper, we initiate the study of rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) for a mono-static integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, where the dual-functional base station (BS) simultaneously communicates with multiple users and detects multiple moving targets. We aim at optimizing the ISAC waveform to jointly maximize the max-min fairness (MMF) rate of the communication users and minimize the largest eigenvalue of the Cram\'er-Rao bound (CRB) matrix for unbiased estimation. The CRB matrix considered in this work is general as it involves the estimation of angular direction, complex reflection coefficient, and Doppler frequency for multiple moving targets. Simulation results demonstrate that RSMA maintains a larger communication and sensing trade-off than conventional space-division multiple access (SDMA) and it is capable of detecting multiple targets with a high detection accuracy. The finding highlights the potential of RSMA as an effective and powerful strategy for interference management in the general multi-user multi-target ISAC systems.

翻译：本文首次研究面向单基地集成感知与通信（ISAC）系统的速率分割多址接入（RSMA）技术，其中双功能基站（BS）同时与多用户通信并检测多个运动目标。我们旨在优化ISAC波形，以联合最大化通信用户的极大极小公平（MMF）速率，并最小化无偏估计的克拉美-罗界（CRB）矩阵的最大特征值。本文考虑的CRB矩阵具有普适性，涉及多运动目标的方位角、复反射系数和多普勒频率估计。仿真结果表明，相比传统空分多址接入（SDMA），RSMA能够实现更优的通信与感知性能折中，且具备高精度检测多目标的能力。这一发现凸显了RSMA作为通用多用户多目标ISAC系统中一种有效且强大的干扰管理策略的潜力。