Beamforming Design for OFDM-ISAC System in C-RAN with IRS-enhanced Wireless Fronthaul

This paper investigates a multicarrier integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system in cloud radio access network (C-RAN). Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is exploited to enhance the wireless fronthaul link between the baseband unit (BBU) and remote radio heads (RRHs), by which the system communication and sensing performance can be improved. We propose an effective joint design for fronthaul compression and beamforming of the BBU pool, RRH and IRS, in order to maximize the minimum beamforming gain across the sensing target directions for each RRH while guaranteeing the communication performance. Numerical results validate the proposed joint optimization scheme.