Sophia Antipolis, France, 26 February 2026
ETSI’s Industry Specification Group on Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISG ISAC) has released ETSI GR ISC 003, a Report defining the architectural foundations required to integrate advanced sensing capabilities into future 6G systems. Building on earlier ISAC work, the report examines 17 key challenges across system architecture, RAN architecture, and lower-layer RAN, and proposes potential approaches to address them.
The ETSI Report introduces a 6G ISAC system reference model supporting all sensing modes identified in a former Report on use cases and requirements, including monostatic, bistatic and multi-static configurations, involving both the network and the UEs. It outlines necessary functionalities such as sensing service control, sensing data collection and processing, mobility management of sensing entities, charging, and the exposure of sensing results in a secure and privacy-preserving framework.
On the RAN side, the report highlights new functionalities required to support RF sensing—such as sensing task coordination, measurement configuration, data processing, and optional sensing data storage—while outlining challenges related to interference mitigation, power control, sensing signal design, and flexible resource allocation for ISAC operations.
The publication also recognises the need for further studies on multi operator sensing, CN–RAN coordination, and the integration of computing, security, privacy, and sustainability considerations—topics which are being addressed in upcoming work in the group.
This new ETSI report provides timely guidance and feeds 3GPP work as they begin exploration of 6G ISAC system and RAN architecture. ETSI, one of the founding members of 3GPP, is a leading contributor to the global partnership project and helps shaping next generation wireless capabilities where communication and sensing converge.
Download the ETSI Report “ETSI GR ISC 003: Integrated Sensing And Communications (ISAC); System and RAN Architectures”.
