# Seventy Years of Radar and Communications: The Road from Separation to Integration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.00446 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00446/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 Oct 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Near-field Beam training for Extremely Large-scale MIMO Based on Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03249/) (2024)
- [Sensor Selection via GFlowNets: A Deep Generative Modeling Framework to Navigate Combinatorial Complexity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.19736/) (2024)
- [Optical ISAC: Fundamental Performance Limits and Transceiver Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11792/) (2024)
- [Autoencoder for Position-Assisted Beam Prediction in mmWave ISAC Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18594/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Radar and communications (R&C) as key utilities of electromagnetic (EM) waves have fundamentally shaped human society and triggered the modern information age. Although R&C have been historically progressing separately, in recent decades they have been converging towards integration, forming integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems, giving rise to new, highly desirable capabilities in next-generation wireless networks and future radars. To better understand the essence of ISAC, this paper provides a systematic overview on the historical development of R&C from a signal processing (SP) perspective. We first interpret the duality between R&C as signals and systems, followed by an introduction of their fundamental principles. We then elaborate on the two main trends in their technological evolution, namely, the increase of frequencies and bandwidths, and the expansion of antenna arrays. We then show how the intertwined narratives of R&C evolved into ISAC, and discuss the resultant SP framework. Finally, we overview future research directions in this field.