Towards Spectrally Efficient and Physically Reconfigurable Architectures for Multibeam-Waveform Co-Design in Joint Communication and Sensing

[Abstract] - Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS) platforms are emerging as a foundation of next-generation mmWave (MMW) and sub-THz systems, enabling both high-throughput data transfer and angular localization within a shared signal path. This paper investigates multibeam architectures for JCAS that simultaneously optimize waveform shaping and beamforming across the time, frequency, code, and direct analog/ radio frequency (RF) domains. The paper compares Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), Frequency Modulated Arrays (FMA), Time-Modulated Arrays (TMA), direct RF/MMW modulation, and Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based systems with respect to spectral efficiency, beam orthogonality, latency, and Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) estimation accuracy. The results highlight architecture-specific trade-offs among beam agility, efficiency, accuracy and resolution, and complexity. It also provides a framework for selecting JCAS front ends optimized for power, latency, inter-beam and multi-user interference, and rapid system reconfiguration.