Digital Radio Twin of Chalmers for 6G Integrated Sensing, Positioning, and Communication

Abstract

This thesis presents the development of a Digital Radio Twin of Chalmers University campus, aimed at enabling advanced simulation and evaluation of 6G wireless communication systems. As future cellular technologies increasingly demand precise modeling of radio environments, this project integrates 3D modeling, ray tracing, and signal processing to create a simulation framework that reflects realistic propagation conditions. Using Blender for geometric modeling and NVIDIA’s Sionna RT for ray-tracing-based channel simulations, a virtual replica of the Chalmers campus was constructed. This digital environment supports configurable transmitter and receiver setups, allowing systematic analysis of signal behavior under various parameters. The generated data was then used to compute key performance indicators (KPIs) such as channel capacity, latency, and positioning accuracy. Despite time and scope constraints, this approach demonstrates the feasibility and value of digital radio twins in exploring and designing future 6G networks. The resulting datasets and simulation tools offer a valuable foundation for further research in integrated sensing, positioning, and communication. Analyzing the simulation results provides insight into how different performance metrics affect the transmitted signal in terms of both positioning and communication. Parameters such as the number of subcarriers, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, transmission power, and distance, all seem to impact the performance metrics significantly. For positioning, it became surprisingly evident that distance was not the only contributing factor in achieving low positioning bounds; the system’s resolution also seemed to play a significant role.