RIS-Aided ISAC in Cluttered Environments

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the performance of a communication-optimized reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system operating in a cluttered environment where multiple scatterers may interfere with the different types of reflected sensing signals. The RIS phases coherently combine the direct and reflected communication paths at the user equipment, whereas the corresponding radar returns remain generally misaligned. In addition, static scatterers near the radar act as environmental clutter that affects only the sensing function. For the communication link over small-scale fading, we derive an exact ergodic-capacity expression for the no-RIS baseline, a moment-matched Gamma approximation for the RIS-assisted link, and a Jensen upper bound, all of which are interpreted as upper bounds on the rate of the underlying binary phase-shift keying waveform. For sensing, our analysis focuses on the average signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR) at the direct range-Doppler cell. Specifically, we derive the average powers of the direct, RIS-related, and scatterer returns, which scale as constant, linear, linear, quadratic, and constant, respectively, with the number of RIS elements. We then weigh them by the range and slow-time leakage responses to obtain the SCNR, thereby separating RIS-induced clutter from geometry-governed environmental clutter. Range and velocity estimation are evaluated using resolution-normalized metrics. Our Monte Carlo simulation results validate the analysis and show that zero-Doppler clutter leakage dominates the SCNR.