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：本文首次研究了用于单站集成感知与通信（ISAC）系统的速率分割多址接入（RSMA），其中双功能基站（BS）同时与多个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最大最小公平（MMF）速率，并最小化用于无偏估计的克拉美-罗界（CRB）矩阵的最大特征值。本工作中考虑的CRB矩阵具有通用性，因为它涉及多个运动目标的角方向、复反射系数和多普勒频率的估计。仿真结果表明，与传统空分多址（SDMA）相比，RSMA保持了更大的通信与感知权衡，并且能够以高检测精度检测多个目标。该发现凸显了RSMA作为通用多用户多目标ISAC系统中干扰管理的有效且强大策略的潜力。