OpenISAC Overview

OpenISAC is an OFDM-based integrated sensing and communication platform for real-time over-the-air experiments. It is designed for researchers who want a compact PHY-level system that can be modified quickly, run on USRP hardware, and expose the sensing and communication paths clearly.

OpenISAC is not a Wi-Fi, LTE, or 5G NR stack. It does not target interoperability with commercial devices. Its value is the short path from an OFDM or ISAC idea to a hardware experiment.

Capabilities

• Real-time OFDM communication and radar-style sensing on USRP devices.
• BS-side monostatic sensing and UE-side bistatic sensing.
• OTA timing support for distributed sensing experiments.
• YAML-driven runtime configuration.
• Python frontends for visualization, analysis, and configuration.

Project map

• src/BS.cpp and src/UE.cpp are the C++ runtime entry points.
• include/ contains shared DSP, runtime, and configuration types.
• config/ contains YAML templates for supported hardware and simulation modes.
• scripts/ contains visualization, control, config editing, and helper tools.
• site/src/content/docs/ is the source of this documentation site.
• docs/ contains published static site output and standalone repository notes.

Recommended reading path

Start with hardware setup and installation, then build the C++ runtime and prepare BS.yaml / UE.yaml. After the first OTA run, read the architecture and signal-processing sections to understand where to modify the pipeline.

Common Workflows

Goal	Backend program	Typical config	Typical frontend
Run the BS side	BS	config/BS_X310.yaml or config/BS_B210.yaml	plot_sensing_fast.py
Run the UE side	UE	config/UE_X310.yaml or config/UE_B210.yaml	plot_bi_sensing_fast.py
Run without USRPs	ChannelSimulator, BS, UE	config/BS_Sim.yaml and config/UE_Sim.yaml	See Channel Simulator
Tune parameters from a browser	scripts/config_web_editor.py	Reads build/BS.yaml and build/UE.yaml	Browser at http://<host>:8765