Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) have emerged as a key enabler to fully realize the vision of integrated, intelligent, and ubiquitous connectivity in 6G systems. However, several operational challenges, including severe Doppler effects, interference, and latency, hinder the seamless integration of NTN and Terrestrial Networks (TN). In this context, Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), which unifies sensing and communication functionalities within a common framework, offers great potential to address these challenges while enabling new network capabilities. Due to its complementary functionalities, ISAC can play a pivotal role in enhancing NTN performance, although its practical adoption requires a fundamental rethinking of existing architectural and standardization frameworks. Motivated by this need, this article examines key aspects of ISAC-enabled NTN, including architectural design principles, application scenarios, standardization challenges, and key performance tradeoffs. Finally, a representative case study is presented to illustrate major technical challenges and highlight promising future research directions for ISAC-enabled NTN.

翻译：非地面网络（NTN）已成为充分实现6G系统中集成化、智能化与泛在连接愿景的关键使能技术。然而，包括严重多普勒效应、干扰与延迟在内的若干运行挑战阻碍了NTN与地面网络（TN）的无缝集成。在此背景下，集成感知与通信（ISAC）——将感知与通信功能统一于通用框架内——为解决这些挑战并启用新型网络能力提供了巨大潜力。得益于其互补性功能，ISAC可在增强NTN性能方面发挥关键作用，但其实际应用需要对现有架构与标准化框架进行根本性重新思考。基于这一需求，本文系统研究了ISAC赋能的NTN关键方面，包括架构设计原则、应用场景、标准化挑战及关键性能权衡。最后，通过代表性案例研究阐明主要技术挑战，并为ISAC赋能的NTN指明具有前景的未来研究方向。