[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84709-en":3,"doc-seo-84709-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},84709,549758252649,"Ivy","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000253669c5317157?_k=1778319167496531819",8,"Research & Report","Finite-Blocklength ISAC Multiple Access: A Source-Channel Coding Perspective","Future networks must support massive populations of devices that sense and communicate simultaneously under short-packet constraints, yet the fundamental limits of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in finite-blocklength multiple access remain poorly understood. This paper addresses the gap via a source-channel coding viewpoint: satisfying a sensing-distortion constraint is shown information-theoretically equivalent to a source-coding requirement. The analysis unifies sensing and communication as joint recovery of a single effective payload, enabling tight finite-blocklength bounds and revealing strong energy-rate-sensing tradeoffs.","Finite-Blocklength ISAC Multiple Access: A Source-Channel Coding Perspective  \nZhentian Zhang, Kaitao Meng, Hao Jiang, Zaichen Zhang  \narXiv :2607 .04 109v 1 [ cs .IT] 5 Jul 2026  \nAbstract—Future networks must serve massive populations of devices that sense and communicate simultaneously under shortpacket constraints, yet the fundamental limits of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) in the finite-blocklength multipleaccess regime remain largely undiscovered. This paper closesthis gap from a source-channel coding perspective. We prove that satisfying a sensing-distortion constraint is informationtheoretically equivalent to a source-coding requirement, which collapses sensing and communication into the joint recovery of a single effective payload within a coded multiple-access framework. Building on this equivalence, we derive a finiteblocklength achievability bound together with a Fano-sum manyuser converse and a genie-aided single-user converse, yielding a tight characterization of the minimum energy per bit and the rate-sensing tradeoff. Numerical results reveal that the energy price of sensing fidelity grows almost linearly in dB per decade of distortion tightening and is significantly amplified by the multiple-access load, and that joint encoding of the effective payload strictly outperforms an optimized orthogonal two-phase scheme, demonstrating a genuine integration gain of ISAC at finite blocklength.  \nIndex Terms—ISAC, finite-blocklength, sensing distortion, source coding, many-access channel, multiple access, tradeoffs.  \nI. INTRODUCTION  \nIntegrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is reshaping wireless network design and advancing cognitive networks [1], [2] . While ISAC-oriented transceiver designs have demonstrated substantial integration gains in downlink settings [3], attention has recently shifted to the uplink, where receivers either jointly decode messages and retrieve sensing information from the transmitted signals [4], [5], or sequentially decode one user’s message before sensing the state of another [6] . A prominent trend in uplink ISAC is the transition toward message decoding-oriented sensing, reflecting the practical reality that uplink systems operate with encoded finite-blocklength transmissions and thus inherently call for multiple-access design, particularly at the initial access stage. Existing work has characterized single-user ISAC tradeoffs in which sensing parameters are estimated from feedback signals after message decoding [9], and more recently [7] studied uplink ISAC multiple access based solely on communication-signal-enabled sensing. Nevertheless, a fundamental analytical framework for  \nZhentian Zhang, and Zaichen Zhang are with the National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China and Hao Jiang is with the School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, P. R. China (e-mail: zhen[tianzhangzzt@gmail.com](tianzhangzzt@gmail.com), [zczhang.seu.edu.cn](zczhang.seu.edu.cn), [jiang.hao@seu.edu.cn](jiang.hao@seu.edu.cn) ).  \nKaitao Meng is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (email: [kaitao.meng@manchester.ac.uk](kaitao.meng@manchester.ac.uk)).  \nFig. 1: Block diagram of the considered finite-blocklength ISAC multiple-access system.  \nuplink-only, feedback-free ISAC under varying access density, a setting that faithfully captures practical uplink operation, remains absent, and it is unclear how the sensing fidelity, the decoding reliability, and the energy budget jointly scale when many short-packet users access the channel simultaneously.  \nIn this paper, we close this gap by revisiting the classical Gaussian multiple-access channel (MAC) in the finiteblocklength regime and reformulating uplink transmission asa joint sensing-and-communication problem from a sourcechannel coding perspective, which enables a unified treatment of reliability, sensing perfor","cbCailYqkLBRgiu9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailYqkLBRgiu9","pdf",327523,3,1,6,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n# Information-Theoretic Modeling\n# Source-Coding Equivalence and Bounds\n# Numerical Results\n# Conclusion","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the paper address in finite-blocklength ISAC multiple access?\",\"answer\":\"It addresses how the sensing fidelity, decoding reliability, and energy budget scale when many short-packet users access the channel simultaneously, a regime previously lacking a unified analytical framework.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper connect sensing with source-channel coding?\",\"answer\":\"It proves that meeting a sensing-distortion constraint is information-theoretically equivalent to a source-coding requirement, collapsing sensing and communication into joint recovery of an effective payload.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the numerical results show about energy and sensing fidelity?\",\"answer\":\"They show the energy cost of sensing fidelity grows nearly linearly (in dB per decade of distortion tightening) and is amplified by multiuser access load, with joint encoding outperforming an optimized orthogonal two-phase scheme.\"}]",1784197779,15,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"finite-blocklength-isac-multiple-access-a-source-channel-coding-perspective","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/finite-blocklength-isac-multiple-access-a-source-channel-coding-perspective/84709/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-22","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What problem does the paper address in finite-blocklength ISAC multiple access?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It addresses how the sensing fidelity, decoding reliability, and energy budget scale when many short-packet users access the channel simultaneously, a regime previously lacking a unified analytical framework.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the paper connect sensing with source-channel coding?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It proves that meeting a sensing-distortion constraint is information-theoretically equivalent to a source-coding requirement, collapsing sensing and communication into joint recovery of an effective payload.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What do the numerical results show about energy and sensing fidelity?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"They show the energy cost of sensing fidelity grows nearly linearly (in dB per decade of distortion tightening) and is amplified by multiuser access load, with joint encoding outperforming 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